When it came to Love
by Anjelline
Summary: [Tamaki x Haruhi] When it came to love, what could Haruhi expect? She didn't expect anything, she didn't want anything. Note: Ain't sure what to do with this story. read at own digression![UPDATED: 11 JULY 2007 Chapter 13 : A bit of shopping does wonders]
1. When it came to Love

**Let me just say that I'm not good at writing fanfics. Because I haven't written a single story in 3 years. Not even imagined or day-dreamed a story in those 3 years. So, without further ado, hope you enjoy the nonsense I've just typed. P**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Just my brain. And my room, and my clothes, and my guitar, and my cat.**

**When it came to love**

Haruhi wasn't great when it came to love, or so that was what she loved to think about. She yearned for it most of the time, only to remind herself that she was going to school for school, not to meet new people like what the other rich kids in school did. She had a mission in life, and it was to continue her mother's legacy, in the firm grip of law and justice.

She'd have her urban fairytale point in her life, when she would one day be the most successful, the most intelligent and sharp-witted lawyer ever to walk on this earth, just like her mom. Perhaps she'd meet someone like her father, 'Scratch that, dad's already too much to handle, Tamaki-senpai is exactly like him, there's no way I could live with that sort of nonsense daily… Wait, why am I even thinking about Tamaki-senpai?' She pondered over that question non-committedly, half the while thinking to herself that one day, she vowed silently, adding another mental goal to her mental list of her life's goals, she'd want to get married and have her own little fairytale family life…

"Haruhi-kun?" She snapped out of her idle thoughts and smiled at the two girls in front of her. "Ah, sorry girls. I spaced out there for a second…" She looked at them directly, tilting her head slightly, "What were you saying?" As of norm, that was enough to send her customers screaming 'moe' at her, him, technically, they still haven't had a clue what her gender was. Not that it was much of an issue to begin with. Girls from middle school back then always wanted to talk to her and sit next to her in class, eat lunch with her during lunch breaks, and do practically everything with her. It felt nice, but it was rather tiring sometimes.

"We… we were wondering if you had any relatives?" The girl seated on Haruhi's left asked politely. Haruhi turned to face her, thinking about the girls' question, "No, not that I could ever remember. My father never talked about his past, nor did he talk about my mother's past. He didn't really like talking about it actually. He looked towards the future all the time." She smiled wistfully at her customers, "But I suppose it'll be fun to have relatives, to be able to visit them and bring them little things like food or just to exchange stories from time to time." Her two customers smiled happily at her reply and giggled softly. 'Argh, I'd better concentrate, else he'd be raising my debts' Haruhi looked above the girls' heads and saw her mentioned 'he', the tall bespectacled boy of seventeen, Ootori Kyoya look up and giving her his usual knowing, 'shadow king' smile. She shuddered inwardly and pulled her attention back to her customers, taking a quick, discreet peek at her watch, "Girls, I think time's about to be up. Will you be coming back tomorrow?"

She took down their appointments and bid the girls' farewell and started cleaning up. She'd grown use to doing this. Hosting, that is. It helped her a little bit with her life's current goal, observing characters and personalities. It'll be a big help when she'd graduate from Ouran and go over to Tokyo University to further her studies in Law. It was when she went home that fateful day (the day she broke that godforsaken vase, it wasn't even that pretty to begin with. She still had no idea why it could fetch 800,000 yen.) and mulled it over, maybe working for the host club wouldn't be that bad. It'll give her some experience with stalker-type people.

"Haru-hi, you look rather pre-occupied today!" Hikaru draped an arm over her shoulder, prodding her right cheek.

"Yea, we've been watching you all this while.." His younger brother, Kaoru draped his left arm over her shoulder as well, resting on top of Hikaru's arm, this time prodding her left cheek.

"Tell us, tell us, what's on your mind?" They both asked in unison.

Haruhi merely shrugged their arms off and picked up the tray, now holding the used teacups and plates. "Nothing much." She said stoically, walking over to the preparation room to get a new set of tableware and food. She had another appointment in ten minutes, she had to clear off these before Kyoya started giving her _those_ looks.

"Awww…" the twins grumbled, "That's not telling us anything to begin with."

"There's nothing to be said, I'm honest!" She looked at them and shook her bangs away from her eyes, "Besides, you've got customers; go entertain them, not me." With that, she walked into the prep room, closing the door with her foot, and leaned against it for a moment, closing her eyes and allowing her thoughts to stray a while longer.

The boys in the club were so stereotyped, but Tamaki wanted it that way, that's what Kyoya told her before. The twins were the trouble-making devil types, Kyoya would be the cool calculative type, Tamaki himself would be the Princely type. Not that it ever mattered to her, Tamaki merely reminded her of her father's crazy personality. She was too immune to such nonsense, really.

Then there was Hunny-senpai and his cousin, Mori-senpai. Those were affectionate names given to them by some default, their full names were too much of a mouthful, and it would be weird to start calling those two by their given names, to begin with.

Hunny-senpai, as Kyoya would put it, was the loli-shota type. Ever the cute one, Haruhi always wondered how the third year senior could look so… chibi for his age. She was still confused up till now, but didn't question about it, since she figured that he probably was the late bloomer sort. She'd fuss over the amount of cake the boy could eat. The amount of sugar he could consume; she was surprised at how he'd not been diagnosed with diabetes yet. And his cousin, Mori-senpai, could sit there for hours like a robot, not saying anything unless you looked him in the eye and asked him something.

'Talk about taciturnity. He's probably too bored to talk about anything, unless he's tired, of course.' She mused, thinking about the time when he called her cute and knocked out five minutes later on the couch only not to remember anything after his nap. She walked towards the sink, putting the tray down on the counter top carefully. She seriously couldn't afford to destroy anything else. She was left with 200,000 yen and that would be it, no more debts to pay.

Washing the cups, she put them into the dishwasher to dry and took out a new set of teacups, 'Another one more customer and I can go home. Yay!' She thought, smiling to herself again, and turned her head as the door closed.

"Haru-chan! Getting more cake?" She saw hunny-senpai pushing a stool next to the sweet cabinet and was trying to reach for the gummy sweets.

"No, senpai. Just some tea." She replied him; reaching up to the shelf he couldn't reach to, and gave him the bottle of sweets he was jumping to grab.

"Thanks! Want one?" He opened the jar, popping an orange-coloured gum into his mouth. "No thanks, you can take it out and share it with usa-chan and mori-senpai though."

With that, the two of them walked out of the room, hunny-senpai skipping one way, and her walking in the other direction to her customer.

-------

"Haruhi, want a ride home? Daddy will send you home today!" Tamaki called out to her as she was walking out of the school gates.

"No, it's alright. I want to go to the supermart for a while. There're some super discounts on the beef and the cabbages today." She waited for the older boy to catch up to her and continued walking as he slowed his pace down to match her strides.

Exchanging casual smiles, Tamaki's eyes brightened up "Super discounts? Can I go? We could go there together! I want to see the supermart again! I didn't get to buy the beef back then… you wouldn't allow me…" He looked at her with his famous puppy eyes, wishing all his might that she'd give in and let him go with her to the mart.

He could try pushing one of those squeaky-wheeled things that you could put the mart's baskets in, if not, he could always carry the baskets for the both of them. He could get some dog food for Antoinette too, he always wanted the pooch to try some commoner dog food, since he bought her from the commoner mall; she must be missing the wonders of commoner dog food.

"Alright, but you mustn't buy everything. I don't think your grandmother would be too pleased if you…" Haruhi resigned herself to a sigh as she watched the excitable senior jump around in joy, scaring a few girls around them.

"Tamaki-senpai." She said firmly, tugging at the back of his blazer, getting him to calm down from his jumping around.

"Yes, haruhi?" He smiled, trying to charm the lights out of her. He couldn't, for all his perfectness, figure out why… Why this girl could not be fazed one tiny bit by his charming smiles. Wasn't it not charming enough?

"Are you even listening, senpai? I said, you have to obey some conditions if we're to go to the mart." He focused his eyes on her face, 'oh how sweet the way she speaks!' before letting her words get processed by his mind.

"Con-Conditions? What conditions, haruhi?" He looked at her, violet eyes more focused this time. He watched the petite girl stick out her fingers and started listing out her conditions. She always looked cute no matter what she did, for some inane reason. He decided to listen to her conditions carefully, "One, you are not allowed to buy down the entire mart, your grandmother would not approve of it. Two, you have to stick close to me, and not gawk at every item that's on offer. The mart's full of that. Three, you are not allowed to play on the trolleys. Four, you do not pay for me. Five, no-"

"Haruhi, what trolleys? They have trolleys in the mart?" He interrupted her, waiting for the chauffeur to arrive.

"Yes, they have trolleys in the mart senpai. It's those squeaky wheel things you were talking about the last time we went to the supermart, remember?" She looked up at him, like it was the most obvious thing that the squeaky wheels were the trolleys.

He nodded quietly, trying to absorb all that she'd said, 'There was a fifth condition, she didn't finish…'

"What was the fifth condition, dearest daughter?" He asked, raking a hand through his blonde hair. "Eh.. oh right. Five, no bugging. That's it. Oh, your car's here." She smiled at him, and got into the now waiting car.

The ride to the supermart was an enjoyable one. They'd decided to drop by each other's place for a while, so that they could change out of their uniforms and go to the commoner supermart un-scrutinised. He stared out of the car and watched as the streets pass by. For once, he wasn't trying to smother her with his hugs, or show his overwhelming concern, he just didn't felt like doing that today, there was no reason to. Maybe it was because he felt a little exhausted from the day's business. He had a little more customers than usual, and Kyoya told him to expect that for the next few months to come. He felt his breath bounce off the window pane as he continued his lazy stare out of the window.

"Tamaki-senpai? Are you okay? You seem a little distracted…" Haruhi asked. He turned and looked at her, a tired smile forming on his lips, "Yes, I'm fine… Just a little tired is all… I can't wait to get to the mart though!" He sat up, elbows on his thighs, looking at her with more attention, "We'll go to the beef section first… then the cabbage… then I want to get some dog food for Antoinette and-" He rambled on, smiling excitedly as he went on.

Haruhi couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm, it was addictive sometimes. Just some times. It was times like these that she truly enjoyed his company. He wasn't trying to over express his infatuation for her and he was being quiet; he was just being himself she realised, 'Happy Tamaki. I could deal with this.'

They were now in the mart, and Tamaki was busy looking through the tomatoes as she took a cabbage up for inspection. "Haruhi, these tomatoes aren't that ripe! Why is that so?" Tamaki held up a not-so-ripe tomato, pointing to the rest in the huge display tray, which was next to the cabbages.

Haruhi continued inspecting the cabbage in her hand and placed it into a plastic bag with the other cabbages she'd selected and looked up, "Oh, commoners don't usually eat everything at one go, senpai. We usually let the food to sit in the fridge for a few more days before eating them, since usually most commoners go grocery shopping once in a few days." She picked up a tomato, inspecting it before looking up at him evenly, "Besides, these tomatoes would make great pasta, don't you think so?"

She placed the tomato back and walked over to the push-cart they took from the trolley stand and placed the cabbages in. "Come on, let's go. You need to get dog food, right?" She started pushing the cart and looked back at him, waiting for him to take his place to push the cart.

Tamaki smiled to himself as he walked along side Haruhi, happy at the pleasant atmosphere between the both of them. He really liked this compared to her usual blunt sarcasm at school.

"Hi dad! What are you doing here in the mart?" Tamaki heard Haruhi ask suddenly. He froze in his tracks and turned to face 'dad'.  
"I was following you, Haruhi. Is it bad of daddy to do that?" Ranka-san was now in full sight, and he was glaring at Mr. Obvious (Tamaki).  
A finger stabbing into Tamaki's chest, Ranka looked at his daughter, "Well, what are you doing with the likes of him, Haruhi?"

"Ah, well, he wanted to go buy some dog food for his dog at home, dad. Besides, I can't possibly carry all these home myself, it's too heavy. Tamaki-senpai promised to send me home later and help me carry the groceries up to our doorstep, so why not?" Haruhi replied, smiling at her father. She looked at him for a moment and turned to Tamaki, "Senpai, the dog food's over at that aisle, shall we go there?"

Guiding the push-cart down the aisle, she turned her attention back to her father "I thought you had to work overtime tonight, dad. I was going to make beef stew for you so that when you got home, you could have some. It would be done by the time you got home… Tamaki-senpai, you're walking into the wrong aisle! It's over here!" She pulled the second-year senior by the back of his shirt and dragged him back to where her father was.

Tamaki smiled sheepishly and pushed the push-cart down the correct aisle, stopping at each and every brand to scrutinize the product. It was amazing how everything looked so appetizing, even for a dog's chow; he just couldn't decide, "Haruhi, what brand would you recommend? I can't de-"

"Who gave you permission to speak to my daughter using her given name, eh?" Ranka-san used the back of his shoe to hit Tamaki on the head, giving the boy a huge bruise growing at the back of his head.

"Ow!" Tamaki howled painfully, "Ranka-san, why'd you do that for? It hurts!"

Clutching his head, Tamaki felt tears springing to his eyes. 'Real tears, it really hurts this time. That Ranka-san…' He looked at Haruhi with his blurred vision and gritted his teeth. He couldn't burst out wailing at a mart, it'd be so embarrassing. But since when did he get embarrassed at little things like that? 'I really ought to fix for a psychiatrist soon.'

"Dad! Stop that!" Haruhi turned to her father, chiding him. "You may hate him, but Tamaki's family is giving me the scholarship money to go to Ouran, so please try to not to hit him, at the very least!" She turned back to the victimized boy and looked at him with concerned eyes, "Tamaki-senpai? Are you really okay?"

'He's not even howling the way he usually does. What's wrong with him? Is he like that when he's out of school?' She thought as she looked back at her father, watching him sulk and focused at the now tearing senior in front of her. 'At least he's tearing, he'd be wailing in a bit.'

She gingerly touched his bruise, earning her a resounding yelp from him, "You won't die from it, I'm sure. Just remember to put some ice on it later…" She watched as he nodded his head slowly, and moved to the nearest bag of dog food, "I'm not sure what Antoinette would like, but I think these would do, senpai." He nodded again, not wanting to speak for fear of what Ranka-san would do to him.

"Let's go then. Do you have anything else you'd like to get, senpai? How about you? Dad?" Both men shook their heads and she shrugged, walking towards the cashier counters.

"Um… C-Can I go get some tidbits on the way back? They're for my father…" Tamaki asked timidly, afraid to get rained down with kicks by Ranka-san. "Um, it's okay if you haven't got time, I'll just go after I drop you and your dad off…" He quickly added, sneaking glances at Ranka-san, and looking at Haruhi for her reply.

"Sure, no problem." Tamaki smiled gingerly and pushed the trolley to the first empty counter he saw, "I'll pay for it, you can pay me back later on the way back. Would that be okay with you?" He looked back at Haruhi and saw her nod as she dragged her father out of the mart "I'll see you outside, senpai."

----

Tamaki looked at her disappearing back fondly as he took out his wallet. Deep inside, he knew he liked the girl. She was… she fitted him nicely. She rooted him down firmly to the ground, yet allowed him to go about his daily routine of nonsense.

He had a side not many knew of, the serious side of him. He was sure Haruhi knew of this serious side of him, he'd just displayed it to her. But mostly, he loved portraying the silly, princely façade that he'd put on whenever he got to school. Sometimes, he'd do that when he was at home, just to amuse the maids and to annoy his grandmother. His mother loved drama, and back when he was younger; he would put on little drama skits to keep her entertained if he wasn't playing on the piano. 'I suppose that's where I got that crazy character of mine from…' He smiled his charming smile at the cashier as he took out a ten-thousand yen bill, "Would this be enough?"

He took back the change and felt the weight of the coins in his pocket. He'd have to remind one of the butlers to get him a coin purse to hold all these coins. Picking up the various bags, he walked out of the mart and handed them to his driver, "Where are they?"

The driver told him they were waiting for him in the car before opening the boot to store away the groceries.

Tamaki wouldn't mind not putting up his princely façade, even if for one day. It would be a nice change, to be able to sit as calmly as Mori-senpai, to work as quickly and efficiently as Kyoya, and to think and speak as bluntly as Haruhi. Ah, Haruhi. He couldn't help but smile as he opened the car door and seat himself opposite the father and daughter.

The car engine started and Tamaki tapped on the window separating the driver, "Let's go to the usual shop first, before we drop Haruhi and her father off." The driver gave a silent nod and the car rolled off to their next destination.

Oh, how he wished, just for a day or two, he could be this relaxed around everyone else, not just Haruhi. She had an impact on him, when it came to his definition of love. She made him feel like he could be himself, like he could be anything he wanted and still not feel stupid by it. Insulted, yeah, but not stupid.

He stared blankly at the empty spot between Ranka-san and Haruhi and realized how quiet the three of them had become. Trying to look for a topic to talk about, Tamaki fidgeted slightly.

"Ranka-san, how was work today?"  
"Fine."  
"Did you manage to earn more than last night?"  
"Hmm."  
'This is boring, I wish he'd answer with just more than a one syllable answer.' Tamaki sighed and looked at Haruhi for help, but found that she was already sound asleep. She must've been tired out by today's club activities too.

"Ranka-san…" Tamaki looked at the cross dresser curiously, catching the other male's attention, "Do you… do you miss her? Some times?"

He watched as Ranka-san breath out a sigh, averting his eyes to the car's window, "Yes, some times. Most of the time. All the time. I miss her all the time. Why do you ask, Tamaki Suou?" He looked directly at the blone-haired boy, voice even and face stoic

The younger male shrugged, "I was just curious… What was she like? Very much like Haruhi?"

"Yea, she was very much like Haruhi. Kotoko was a little livelier, I suppose. But this child lost her mother and she still remembered how her mother passed away. She was changed after that. Some times, I wonder if I'm doing the right thing, cross dressing, and acting this silly way that I act. But, since Haruhi's happy, I suppose I'm happy as well." Tamaki nodded once and smiled gingerly, earning him a slight smile back from the older man

Perhaps, Tamaki Suou wasn't as bad as he'd think he'd turn out to be.

Just perhaps.


	2. In all of Tamaki's Life

**I'll do my best:P Thanks for the reviews too, I wasn't expecting any actually… But since you've started reviewing, please do continue! Just don't expect too much from me though, I'm not great at creative ideas. Heh heh.**

**In all of Tamaki's life, Chapter 2**

"Ha-ru-hi!" The twins called out in their usual unison voices over the din of their classmates.

"We saw you getting into the car with milord last evening." Kaoru looked at her curiously, placing his bag at the side of his table.

"Yeah, what was that all about? You weren't even going in the direction of your home!" Hikaru sat down heavily at his desk on Haruhi's left, watching as his twin leaned against his table.

"We went to the super mart to get some groceries; senpai sent me home after that." Haruhi looked up at the twins whose mischievous antics she'd grown so accustomed to by now. Taking out an eraser, she rubbed off the mistake she'd just made and swept the dirt the eraser just made down to the floor, "YOU WENT TO THE MART WITHOUT US?" Haruhi sighed inwardly, she should've asked the rest of the club along but she was pretty tired out by the time she finished club duties the afternoon before.

"Yes, I was tired and I couldn't be bothered to find the two of you. You'd run off somewhere already without telling me. Tamaki-senpai happened to offer me a ride home initially but when I told him I wanted to go to the mart, he'd agreed to take me there and back home again."

She wrote in her notebook and looked at the both of them, both of whom had glaringly stuck their faces two inches from her own. Pushing their faces away, she shrugged nonchalantly and smiled, "Besides, Tamaki-senpai wasn't that bad, he was quiet during yesterday's trip, and my father turned up while we were shopping…"

"Quiet? You're saying milord was quiet? Kaoru, what day was it yesterday?" Hikaru sat back into his chair, thinking hard. 'No wonder milord was looking like he was forced into doing his job rather than his usual. Something's not right…'

Kaoru flipped through his mental calendar of events concerning the said senior, his face an identical frown as his brother's, "I think it was the day he got separated with his mother. No, that's not it; that was a few months before since school's already in mid-terms." He sighed audibly, "I don't know, Hikaru. I can't place anything on yesterday's date. What's up with him anyway, Haruhi? Did you ask why he was being so quiet?" He sat down in his chair and took out the textbook that was to be used for their first lesson.

"He just said he was a little exhausted is all… He's much easier to deal with when he's quiet you know? He's still excitable, but he's not so noisy." She replied, closing the math textbook and notebook that she was scribbling with. "Don't think too much into it, boys. I'm sure senpai is fine." Putting back her books into her bag, she followed Kaoru's actions and took out her textbook.

She turned to find both teenagers shrugging nonchalantly too, "If you say so, Haruhi…" Smiling at them, she said with a whisper as the teacher walked into class, "I made some beef stew last night to share with all of you today. Senpai bought a bit too much beef last night, so Dad and I had a little too much leftovers." The twins turned and grinned at her, Haruhi always made the best beef stew.

-----

Tamaki stretched out in his seat at his desk and turned back to face his best friend, Ootori Kyoya, "Kyoya, has your father taught you anything about your family's business yet?"

The blonde's question seemed to have gained enough curiosity and attention to allow Kyoya to put the book he'd been absorbed in, down and bookmarked, "Not really, just bits and pieces, here and there. But my second brother has been told to teach me whatever he knew of Father's business. So, I suppose, indirectly, he's teaching, directly, he's not doing anything at all. Why do you ask, Tamaki?"

Tamaki let out a long sigh, "Father's been sending me those invisible ink messages again. I've been meeting up with him over lunches the past few days, even at night for supper, without grandmother knowing of course. He's been grilling me about everything to do with the family business. It's so tiring, I'm not sure if I'm ready for things like that." Violet eyes met brown eyes, and a look of understanding passed through the two boys.

"You'll get used to it, 'otou-san'. You just have to bear with it. Was that why you were being so listless yesterday during club activities?" Kyoya took out his file and opened it up, scribbling in it. Tamaki watched as his best friend continued writing in his file, "Is that my page?" Kyoya paused for a moment and nodded, "Yes, it is. So, was that why you were being listless?" He continued writing in the file, reverting Tamaki's attention back to his previous question.

"I suppose so…" Tamaki tore his eyes away from Kyoya's file and listened to his furious scribbling. He stared out of the classroom window and watched as a lone duck flew in the clouds above, 'Kyoya's going to tell me it'll cost the club money again. Would a ball help? I feel like going out of school. A trip? That would be nice, it brings in money too, I suppose. I wonder how much…'

"I'll lessen the load on you for the time being then; it'll cost the club some 500,000 yen though." Kyoya had already taken out a pocket calculator and was punching in it quickly, "How're you to make up for it, Tamaki?" Kyoya was already thinking of ways and means to help his best friend make up for the lost time with the customers.

"Let's have an excursion trip again. That usually rakes in the money, right?" Kyoya looked up from his calculator and papers sharply and observed the ditzy boy whom he knew since middle school. "An excursion? Yes, that usually rakes in the money…" For Tamaki to suggest for an excursion, the host club's king was finally thinking. Kyoya was surprised but at the same time, he couldn't wait to see what the blonde-haired friend of his could do in the future, what with just a few in-meal chats with the superintendent of Ouran… 'It's a small step, for him to suggest for an excursion, but still, he's thinking… amazing! I shall note that down.'

His usual 'shadow king' smile on his face, Kyoya's glasses reflected light against Tamaki's cheek, "What do you suggest, milord? The beach?"

"No, not the beach. Let's bring the girls to one of my holiday retreat homes. Father said if I wanted, I could use any of them… Let's go Hokkaido next weekend during the golden week." Tamaki's mind was in a whirl now, it would bring in a lot of the girls, maybe more than expected, since they were going to Hokkaido. Haurhi could finally taste all the different flavoured icecreams, and food. 'Oh the food there is nice. Delicious, in fact.' He smiled back at Kyoya, "Hokkaido, we'll go there. My place there is huge. We could hold sixty to about a hundred customers there. We'd still have too much space even then. Our club could have an entire wing to ourselves. I'll just ring up the butlers there to set everything up for us once it's settled, how about it?"

Kyoya smiled at his best friend, this time he smiled genuinely, "It sounds great, Tamaki. You're finally thinking for once. You'll prove to be a worthy rival soon, my friend."

Tamaki laughed out loud, back to his normal vibrant self, "Ah, 'okaa-san', don't feel intimidated by me! You're still running the background work and I'll still be king!"

He stretched again, feeling the muscles in his back relax as his ended the stretch, "We could have host sessions there by shifts. Maybe having sixty customers there all at one go would be a little too over taxing. We could have thirty customers on site at any one time. Would that be better, Kyoya?" Tamaki couldn't wait for the trip, he looked at his best friend happily, and watched as the third son of the Ootori group writing down what he'd just pointed out into a fresh piece of paper in his file.

"Yes, that was what I was thinking too. It'll be more cost effective, although the trips to and fro would be costing us a little more. I suppose it can be made up for, the customers can pay a little more."

The lunch bell rang and the other students were walking back into their classes, "We'll discuss this later at my place after school, Tamaki."

Zipping up his file, Kyoya saw Tamaki wave his hand in agreement as he turned back to face the front of the classroom. Tamaki never ceased to amaze him. Not ever. Just when you thought you knew all of what was Tamaki Suou, he'd come up with something to surprise you like you've never imagined before.

------

Tamaki was walking out of Kyoya's home that afternoon. They'd went over to Kyoya's place to continue discussions over what was to be done while they were in Hokkaido. Kyoya had maps of Hokkaido and all the famous travel spots listed by the time they'd got to his place. Tamaki had met his father after school to arrange for the retreat home in their targeted location, and later on called his butler to arrange for the maids and workers to be placed at the retreat home during the golden week.

In all his life, Tamaki Suou felt that this week had been the most serious week he'd ever had. Previously, when he first learned of his mother's illness, he was devastated, and tried being a serious little kid. But his father had visited them one day out of the blue, and told Tamaki to cheer up. His mother wouldn't like him to be so solemn after all. How could a sober, poker face cheer anyone up? He remembered his father patting him on the head, smiling and lifting him up from his corner in the room. It was as if his father had driven away those nasty choking grey clouds that blurred his happiness away.

Since then, he'd been carefree. He played the piano for his mother while she sat up in bed, singing loudly, tinkling on and on over the piano for hours at end. When she got tired of music, she'd ask him to perform little skits he always loved to perform, just for her. He'd dress up, and stand in front of the bed, occasionally using the butler or a few of the maids as his side characters or sidekicks. His mother smiled and laughed at his antics most of the time, but it was all weak. He wanted to cheer her up badly, so he showered her with all his love and attention. It was the only time he was serious, back then. Serious about doing something; serious about cheering his mother up, so that she could feel happier and not think of the pain that was constantly disturbing her. He'd succeeded of course.

By then he was thirteen, and his grandmother flew in from Japan to whisk him away from his mother, they were not to communicate with each other in any way. He knew his grandmother hated him, she usually said the most nasty of things to him in public, just like the previous culture festival they held in school.

He'd pretended not to be hurt directly by the words she'd said, pretending that he'd done something that day to have offended her. Using the sights and smells from the mini commoner cultural festival his class had set up as an excuse. He saw how Haruhi was trying to tell him that he'd gotten it all wrong and his grandmother just insulted the very essence of him. He knew, but he pretended not to know.

"_Tamaki, don't bother about what your grandmother says and thinks of you. That's the way she is. She treated me, her own son, in the very same way. Just take it easy, the words she throws at you. They're daggers that were meant to shape you up to be serious, but the words I teach to you, they're serious enough to overwrite her way of teaching. Always bear that in mind."_

His father had said that to him the moment he got to Japan. He could remember everything his father taught him. However, the relationship between him and his father was a funny one. His father must've been really bored in the office to want him to play games with his son during school hours. Yazuru Suou was one enigmatic man. He hardly talked to his son, but whenever he did, it was to deliver a lesson to his son, in the most frustrating way ever. He'd laugh and call his son stupid at the end of it all, but would look fondly at Tamaki and smile proudly. Tamaki couldn't stand the way his father constantly played mind games with him, it was juvenile, time-wasting, and well, it was fun, but still. It frustrated him to no end.

Honestly, his family life was a pathetic one. 'An overpowering grandmother, missing mother, a father who loved playing mind games with his only son…' Tamaki sighed as he got into the car, and waved at Kyoya's body guards, lost in his thoughts.

-----

"Tamaki-bocchama, welcome home." Shima greeted him. She was his educator and the Suou family's head housekeeper. She was one strict old lady if she wanted to, but usually had a soft spot for the boy, even if she rarely showed it.

"Hmm, thank you Shima. I'm home." Tamaki said absent-mindedly, handing his bag and taking off his blazer, handing it over to another maid. "Shima-sama, have you seen my grandmother? Or has she gone out?" He looked at the fifty-odd year old lady, loosening his tie and unbuttoning the collar button, waiting for her answer.

"She should be in the sitting room, reading the news papers, Tamaki-bocchama." She nodded approvingly as he gave a slight bow and walked off. When the boy wasn't hyped up about something, he was usually very tame and well-behaved. She smiled and watched as his frame disappeared into the shadows of the corridor.

"Grandmother?" Tamaki knocked on the door gently, he didn't want the grouchy old head dowagess to start insulting him the moment he got home from school, "I'm home, grandmother. I hope you've had a nice afternoon today." He stuck his head into the room, finding his grandmother indeed reading the newspapers. He'd already rolled up his sleeves by the time he got to the sitting room. His grandmother looked up and proceeded to look at him sternly, "What do you want, stubborn half-blooded boy?"

He bit back an annoyed growl as he took a step into the room, "I was just greeting you, that's all. But since you're being grouchy, I'll just leave you be then." He started to back out of the room and close the door when he heard her speak, "Well, welcome back then. I hope you had a pleasant day in school today."

He let out a tired sigh and smiled at his grandmother, "Thank you grandmother. I'll be in my room if you wish to find me." He closed the door gently and proceeded to walk back to the main entrance again, not waiting for her to reply him. His room was at the other end of the building.

'I must ask father to get me a means of internal transport so that I can drive through this godforsaken place. It's too huge! Maybe a travelator; they have those in airports! ' He mused, taking off his tie and allowing it to hang over his neck.

Whistling a random tune, he found his way back to his room ten minutes later.

"Hokkaido, eh?" He smiled, thinking of their upcoming trip.

In the distance, he was sure he heard thunder rolling, would Haruhi be fine? She'd be at home alone after all… "Maybe I'll go visit her later, just to be sure…" He said out loud to himself as he changed out of his uniform.


	3. Haruhi's earplugs

**Oh, have any of you tried those melon snacks they showed in the mall episode? I have! Melon kitkats! Apparently you can only get those in Hokkaido, because the kitkat manufacturer could only afford to upkeep demands in Hokkaido. Or so, that was what I heard. XD My boss bought some melon kitkat for me to try, so that's how I know how melon snacks taste like. One word, heavenly! Thanks for the reviews too :P**

**Haruhi's earplugs.**

Haruhi had handed over four containers of beef stew to the twins, Hunny-senpai and Mori-senpai. She'd two remaining containers that were meant for Tamaki-senpai and Kyoya-senpai, but they were no where to be found since after school, so she'd decided to use their portion for dinner this evening.

The twins had sent her home today, and she was most glad of it because it looked like it was about to rain soon. Hikaru had commented about the weather changing and both twins had volunteered to stay over at her place till the storm brewed over, but she'd decline, saying that they'd be of more trouble to her than if she were to be at home alone, when the storm came. Besides, Tamaki had taught her to use the blindfold and ear plugs. Although, she commented to the twins, nowadays she used the ear plugs, so that she could still function whenever there was a thunderstorm. At least she could still try to cook or at the very least, do the laundry.

The twins weren't exactly convinced, and they complained a whole lot, but finally when she told them off for being too motherly towards her, they stopped and tried laughing it off.

Haruhi giggled a little at the twins antics; they'd never fail to amuse her. It was hilarious superficially, but when one really thought about it, the twins were actually very blunt and sarcastic to a certain extent.

She'd been thinking about the club when her thoughts finally found it self centring on the host club's president, Tamaki Suou. She couldn't seem to take her mind off him for the past twenty four hours. Some way or another, whenever someone mentioned his name, she'd think of the evening before, the ride to the mart, shopping there with him and going to the tidbit shop to get tidbits for his father, only to have him buy her father and her some to try at home. It was like he was suddenly like an adult, a mature teenager. Something that he was rarely like; until now. She didn't know what to think of him right now, whether he was the silly all-loving fellow that he usually was, or the serious and quiet but caring young man that he showed to her last night.

The more she thought about it, the more intrigued she became of him. It was like… it was as if he was growing on her. 'Growing on me! Oh, that's bad. I can't have that happening. I have goals to realise. Ouran is _the_ place of study. Not fun things like love and relationships and bonding sessions.' She slapped herself mentally, stiffening as a bolt of lightning flashed in front of her, through the windows. 'Ear plugs, I need those ear plugs.' She sifted through her jewellery box, looking for the two cushiony stubs, smiling as she happily stuffed them into her ears just as the first clap of thunder sounded off. 'Ahhh… This, I can definitely live with. Thank you, Tamaki-senpai, for this glorious idea!' She thought happily as she prepared dinner.

By the time the rain was pouring down at its peak, she softly heard through her ear plugs, the door was being knocked at. Peering through the peek-hole, she was surprised to find the person of her last thoughts standing in front of her.

"Tamaki-senpai?" She called out loudly, and opened the door, letting him in. He was drenched as the rain was pouring in against her door.

"What are you doing here?" She asked loudly again, a little deaf due to the ear plugs, taking out a pair of slippers for him to use and handed him a towel while he stood at her entrance, taking off his sandals.

"It was raining… and I thought… I thought you could deal with it better if you had company with you." He looked at her and smiled, drying off his hair, "I should've called, but I figured you'd be either too scared to answer, or well, you'd have those ear plugs stuffed in your ears like what you're doing now."

The two of them exchanged laughs as she took off one side of the ear plugs gingerly. "I'm taking them off for a while only though… I'm still not too sure if I can deal with the thunder as of yet, but it was a great idea, senpai. Thank you!"

Tamaki sat down at the dining table, looking around, "Is that the beef stew you said you'd done last night?" He sniffed the air, the stew's aroma was tempting to the taste buds and saw the pot set on the stove.

"The beef stew? Yes it is. I was supposed to pass you and Kyoya-senpai some today, but the both of you were missing the moment school was let off, so I thought I'd use it for dinner tonight. Would you like to try some though, senpai?" Haruhi asked while chopping up some carrots.

"If there's more than enough for you and your father, I wouldn't mind having just a bowl to taste." He got up from his place and walked towards the kitchen area. Haruhi pointed to the ladle and a bowl on the drying rack, "You can use those and help yourself then, senpai."

Tamaki picked up the bowl and the ladle, lifted up the pot's lid and inhaled the stew's aroma, in full strength before him, "Ah, it's nice!" He grinned, he'd been waiting all his life, well not all, but since knowing her, he'd been waiting so long… so, so long just to taste her cooking. Although he'd tasted it once before, but it was hot pot steamboat, so it wasn't really counted.

He scooped out a bowl for himself and blew at the soup, trying to cool it down and took a sip, "This is good! What is it made of, Haruhi?"

He looked at the bowl of soup in surprise and stared at the younger girl, who was now chopping up some onions, tearing a little.

"Eh? Oh, beef, salt, and cabbage… Oh, excuse me senpai…" she nudged him aside and took a paper towel from the pantry area and wiped away her tears, "Argh, onions are horrible." She looked up at him only to find him staring at her like she was the only thing he could look at.

"Tamaki-senpai?" She poked at his arm, "why are you staring at me like that?" She went back to the onions and proceeded to chop them all up before throwing them into the plate next to the carrots.

"You were crying… are you okay?" He finally asked, holding the bowl with both of his hands to warm himself up. The rain outside had him drench and his shirt was still damp. He was feeling rather cold now. He wasn't staring at her because she was tearing, actually, he was, 'Damn, she looks so cute when she tears! So cute!'

"I'm fine, senpai." Haruhi continued to chop ingredients up, looking up occasionally at the window to see if the rain had lightened up yet, her dad would be home soon. "It's just the onions making me tear… honest." She took an un-diced slice and snapped it in front of him, showing him how she teared up.

"Ow! Oh man, I hate onions too!" He waved her hands away and wiped his tears away and laughed heartily.

"Tamaki senpai…" Haruhi heated up the oiled pan on the stove, "I was just wondering… Are you staying over for dinner? Or do you have to go home?" She threw in the onions and almost immediately, a fresh frangrance filled up the kitchen area.

The storm had lessen down to a heavy drizzle now, and Haruhi had taken off her ear plugs, opened up the window a little and allowing some ventilation into the apartment. "If it's not too much of a hassle for you, and if your dad doesn't mind, then I wouldn't mind staying for dinner!" He answered, raking a hand through his hair to check if it was dry enough. It was still lightly damp. His shirt still hadn't dried yet.

"Haruhi, do you have an extra shirt that you could spare me for a while? My shirt's still rather wet from just now…" He asked sheepishly, looking around.

The girl looked up at him with her huge brown eyes and somehow, they managed to get wider still as she realised he was actually still dripping wet, "Ah, senpai! Oh, I'm so sorry. I'll get you some dry clothes… hold on, these're my father's, but I don't suppose he'd mind…"

She turned the fire down to the lowest and walked quickly through the flat and rummaged through her father's old clothes. He hardly wore men's clothes nowadays anyway. She took out a pair of slacks and a long-sleeved shirt, and passed it to him. "The toilet's over there. It's quite small, mind you… not as huge as the ones in school or over at your place. Try not to fall in there."

She shooed him into the toilet, "You can leave the clothes in there to dry; I'll hang it up for you when you're done, senpai!" With that, she left him be and went back to tend to the simmering pan on the stove.

"I've already hung up the clothes… Umm, Haruhi, I'm curious…These clothes you've loaned me are branded clothes… These are clothes I wear too, at least the brand; that is… where does your father get all that money from to buy such expensive things?" Tamaki walked out of the toilet, feeling all at once much more comfortable in dry clothes.

"I don't know. Those were the clothes he used to wear when my mother was still alive. He never touched them after he started cross dressing." She shrugged and transferred the cooked vegetables to a plate. 'The rice should be done by now, I hope there's enough for the two of us…'

"Ah! Dinner's ready!" Haruhi took the plate of vegetables to the dining table, prepared two bowls of beef stew and filled up two porcelain bowls with some rice.

Setting the food on the table, she found that Tamaki had already brought out the chopsticks and spoons. "Your father must've been some rich guy then. But I've not heard the name Fujioka before knowing you…" Tamaki mused out loud as he passed a set of utensils over to Haruhi.

"Well, you could always ask your father later. He should know, since Kyoya-senpai says that your family practically runs the entire market there is in Japan. Besides, it fits you nicely right? Itadakimas'!" She said happily and started eating.

Tamaki nodded and shrugged off his thoughts over Ranka-san's clothes and looked at the dishes in front of him. It was awfully frugal. 'At least there's the beef stew…' He consoled himself, "Itadakimasu…" The beef stew did taste amazing. Not wanting to make Haruhi feel bad (he'd wanted to stay back for dinner after all), he started helping himself to some vegetables. It tasted really good, cabbages with carrots and onions. How she could make such a delicious meal out of a few ingredients was beyond him.

-----

The rain had died down to a light drizzle by the time they were done with dinner. Haruhi had set about washing the dishes, humming to herself. She'd forced Tamaki to sit at the table, and made him a cup of coffee, saying that he'd cause her more trouble than trying to help her out.

'This is relaxing, there's no one staring at me, only I'm staring at her… Should I tell her about the trip? Ah, that could wait… what's that on her head?' Tamaki pondered, sipping on a cup of instant coffee that he'd helped himself to, staring intently at the back of Haruhi's head.

The girl in question was now placing the washed dishes onto the drying rack and moved over to sit down next to him, "Haruhi…"

"Yes, senpai?" She smiled up at him, using the table cloth to clean the table, "There's something on your hair, left side, no sorry, right side. Oh, nevermind, come here…" He leaned over and removed a grain of rice from her hair.

"Oh, OH! Ah, haha…" She laughed lamely, looking at the rice grain, "Thank you senpai!"

"You don't have to call me senpai all the time you know? Daddy will feel hurt!" He joked, pulling a hurt look on his face.

She picked up the table cloth and returned to the sink, and he watched as she set about rinsing it, "Yes, I know senpai, but I'm too used to calling you 'senpai' rather than your name. It'll be weird to me."

He got up and looked at her, his frame leaning against the kitchen wall, "Well, you could always try, and start calling me 'Tamaki otou-sama' instead of 'senpai' right?"

"Not right." She looked at him blankly, "Is it really that important to you that I have to call you by your name, and not by 'senpai'?"

They'd been through this conversation countless times, too many times, in fact, each memorised their conversation and knew what the other would counter back at each other. Not that Haruhi realised that Tamaki-'senpai' had been changing. Well, she did, but she wasn't sure. She thought it was just a phase.

"Well, you're my friend, so you should call me by my name, not 'senpai' all the time, you know?" He countered back, knowing she'd be lost for words this time since he wasn't using his 'daddy' technique right now.

"Friend?" She asked, creaking up an eyebrow. Moving to the toilet to make sure he'd hung up his clothes properly, she stepped into the hallway and moved to her target destination, which was six feet away.

"Yes, friend. I can be your friend right? I **am** considered one of your friends, right?" He asked excitedly, and nervously. "I mean, since you don't like the daddy-friend category, we could try and take away the 'daddy' and I can be your friend, right?"

"More like, acquaintance you mean?" It was back to the usual verbal warfare of memorised conversations again.

Haruhi smiled inwardly, happy that Tamaki wasn't all that quiet now, and he was being his lively self again.

"Can I not be of acquaintance, Haruhi? Please?" He decided to use his infamous puppy eyes on her again today. It usually worked. "But you are of an acquaintance, are you not, Tamaki-senpai?" She opened the toilet door to inspect the potential mess he made and was pleasantly surprised that he could hang up his clothes after all. She nodded approvingly, 'He's not too bad after all… Knows how to use the clothes line! Amazing!'

When she turned back, she'd found the older boy sulking in her home's closet again, growing mushrooms. She _had_ to frown. There were just some things he couldn't just let live and grow up, like growing mushrooms. "Senpai, get out of my closet right this instance, please! Will you stop growing those mushrooms there? Honestly, you should ask your father to build you a musty damp room for you to grow your mushrooms!" She tried dragging him out of the closet but he crawled right back in. "Senpai, please!" She shook her head in resignation and sat outside the closet, "You're seriously hopeless sometimes, Tamaki senpai… Does it really matter to you that much?"

He looked at her shyly and nodded, puppy eyes in full works. He watched as she slouched a little and shake her head again in what he thought was ridicule and he curled up in her closet a little more, looking back at the growing mushrooms and back at her again, using his puppy eyes on her. "Only outside of school, that's all I'm doing. And you're not to make your visits a regular thing, I'm telling you. I need to study too, on top of all the housework. Understood?"

He yapped happily, 'Tamaki, one. Haruhi, zero! I won! Yaaay!' He got out of the closet happily and started grinning, "Yay! Haruhi will call me by my name! Friends! Friends!"

Haruhi started putting back the boxes into the closet, Tamaki surely took up the entire closet everytime he sulked. She rolled her eyes in bemusement and looked at him doing his weird little jiggle, "Sen-…Tamaki-san, did you hear what I told you? You can't make your visits on a regular basis, is that clear?" She watched as he nodded hurriedly and sat himself back at the table.

'She called my name! Maybe I'll get to be on the phone list too!' He took out his mobile phone, "So, do I get to be on your phone list too?" He started typing her name into his phone, "I don't think that would be a good idea, sen-… uh, Tamaki-san."

He stopped fiddling with his phone and looked up at her as she walked around the kitchen area, "Why not?"

"You'd call me non-stop, that's for sure…" She took out a cup and filled it up with some water and walked back to where he sat, "I won't! I swear I won't!" He said quickly, "How about this, I'll give you my number, and if you have anything at all, you can give me a call, or email. Okay?"

He stretched out his legs; it was painful sitting in this position for long periods of time. He needed to go out for a walk before calling the driver to pick him up, he thought as he watched her ponder on his proposition. Finally, she took out her mobile phone and turned it on, "Alright then, here." She passed her phone to him and he dialled in his number and email into her phone, smiling as he passed it back to her. His phone started ringing. Picking up the call, he realised it was his father, "Suou Tamaki speaking. Yes father? Dinner? I just had mine. Supper tonight? What time?" Tamaki looked at his watch briefly, eyebrows knotted in concentration, "Sure, midnight sounds good. Where at? The usual place? Okay… yes, sir. I will not be late. See you later then!"

"Supper at midnight with your father?" Haruhi asked as she snapped her phone shut and placed it gently on the table. The older boy nodded, standing up, "I'd better get going then, Haruhi… I still have homework to do too. Need to complete it before I meet my father later. He likes having long chats with me during meals." He smiled and walked into the bathroom, his clothes were still wet. Brows furrowed, he stuck his head out of the toilet, "Haruhi? Can I borrow your dad's clothes for the night? I'll have them washed and sent back to you by tomorrow morning. My clothes are still wet! It's so disgusting wearing them!"

He heard her mumbled an acknowledgement and proceeded in folding up his wet clothes, he'd just pass them over to the driver later.

Bidding her a quick goodbye, he put on his sandals, which were still wet too, and smiled as he saw her waving at him and telling him she'd see him at the club meeting tomorrow.

Kyoya was right after all… _"Try being her friend first, you dolt. If it goes well, then you can slowly take it from there…"_

Lips forming a smile, he took out his phone and dialled for the driver. Rainy days were great days. 'Especially when there's Haruhi around to talk to… I should thank Kyoya for that advice later.'

"I'm at the park close to Haruhi's place, pick me up there please, thank you."

Tamaki looked up towards the sky, and saw once again, a lone duck flying up above in the clouds, his lips still locked in his smile.

---

**Oh, not enough fluff I suppose. I'll figure in more fluff in chapter 4. heh. Hope you enjoyed!**


	4. Hokkaido, eh?

**I really shouldn't make this a daily affair, right? Right? sighs oh well, I hope I have enough fluff to satisfy your inner theatres. winks Anyway, this is mostly blind writing… you know, I don't think, I just type whatever pops out of my brain. I was thinking of beef stew the other night I was typing… and I thought of the times where I go shopping with my best friends, it's mostly how our grocery shopping goes about: They walk into wrong aisles and I have to drag them back… Then there's the phone thing. The phone thing was inspired totally after I'd watched that summer vaca episode. Heh. I'd always wanted to write that one out. **

**Hokkaido, eh?**

Haruhi stretched as she walked to school that early morning. The air was cold, fresh and she could smell the morning's dew still hanging in the air. As **_the_** commoner student, she was the only one without a chauffer to send her around. Ever since Hunny-senpai and Mori-senpai found out that she stayed closest to them (their definition of close wasn't close. It was still a good five kilometres away.), they'd walk back with her whenever possible. Rare as it was, she enjoyed their company anyway; Mori-senpai helped carry all their bags after all.

She saw the school's main entrance a few minutes later, thoughts on how pleasant the morning was. School hardly started till nine-thirty in the mornings, but she got to school by seven-thirty sharp during school days (assuming their school days were Monday through till Friday). She found that it was the only time where the school was absolutely empty, there weren't any noise from anyone; save for the cleaners and gardeners. She'd found that it was the best time to catch up on her work; she could read and have breakfast at the same time. But it was seldom that she brought breakfast to school, she ate at home first before leaving for school.

A thought suddenly crossed her mind as she reached her classroom, 'Oh geez. Did we pay Tamaki-senpai back the money the other day?' She was referring to that evening, when they'd gone to the super mart to get groceries. Tamaki had paid and he said she could pay him back later, but she'd fallen asleep and clean forgot about it, even after he'd woken her up to go into the dessert shop he'd brought her father and her into, she didn't remember paying him back the money. Taking out her mobile phone, she quickly typed in an email to him, "Did my dad pay you back the money for the groceries the other day? –Haruhi." Sending it out, she set about turning on the air-conditioners in the room, it was stifling warm in the rooms as the ventilation wasn't that great in the building.

She was about to take out her English literature textbook when her mobile phone beeped, 'That's fast. It's only nearly eight! He must be an early riser…' She smiled as she opened the email, "Hi Haruhi! Good morning! Your dad paid me back, so don't worry! See you at club meeting today! –Daddy dearest, Tamaki" She shook her head, he'd never change, would he?

"Okay, see you later then." She replied, and proceeded in turning the device off, it was rather troublesome using the phone. She rarely used it since most of the time there wasn't anyone to call; only the twins would call her. She would call her father at his workplace whenever she finished school, to put his mind at ease. Mostly it was to ask what he wanted to eat for dinner when he got home. When it got to the holidays, Kyoya would call to ask if she was interested in visiting one of the many holiday villas his family boasted. Hunny-senpai and Mori-senpai would each take turns to call her and ask if she'd like to travel overseas to Switzerland to visit Hunny's relatives there. And of course, the twins would ask if she wanted to go over to their place to play.

'Only (Tamaki) senpai wouldn't call to ask. Maybe he's too dense. But the rest told him they called me anyway…' She flipped through her literature textbook absent-mindedly, 'Why am I even thinking about whether he'd call or not?', "Sheesh." She muttered out loud, rolling her eyes at the same time. She looked up at the door as someone was knocking on the door, trying to get her attention, "Tamaki-senpai?"

She stopped flipping the pages and stared at him, mouth agape, "Why are you in school so early in the morning?" She continued staring as he walked in, looking around the room, "Father made me wake up early this morning, so that we could go to school together. I was already in school at seven… I was so bored, so I went to the Third Music Room to play some piano. I was there when you emailed me… I was wondering why the air-conditioning was turned on in this room…"

He stopped at Hikaru's desk and sat on it, looking at her, boredom evident in his eyes, "I didn't know you'd be in school this early as well…" He offered her an enthusiastic smile; it was almost as if laughter could bubble out of his mouth with that smile of his.

Haruhi smiled back, closing her book, "That's a surprise, you being in school this early. Usually I'd be the only student in school at that time. Save for the swim team and the athletics team. They're here even at six in the morning." Hands folded in her lap, she looked at desk before turning to look at him, observing him carefully for once.

She didn't know what to think of the guy, that she'd been very sure of, for the past few days. It annoyed her to a certain extent, to the extent that when she was bored or idling around, he was all she could think of.

She was about to open her mouth to speak when he cleared his throat, averting his eyes away from her gaze, a tiny blush on his cheeks. "What are you blushing at, senpai?" Haruhi asked politely, she knew why he was blushing. But it was just in that stubborn nature of hers to portray herself to be a wooden block and not 'notice' what was going on around her.

"Err… N-nothing. It's just that… y-you were staring at me, and I felt rather uncomfortable…" She heard him stutter out a response, "Whenever did you once feel uncomfortable when someone stared at you?" She asked stoically, 'one more time, and he'd be doing his 'daddy' act.' Haruhi laughed inwardly as she raised an eyebrow at him. "Hmmm? Since when, senpai?" She tilted her head up at him, he was after all, sitting on the desk next to hers.

True to her thoughts, he broke out into his 'daddy' act, "Ah, Haruhi! Daddy feels rather shy if you kept staring at him like that!" He got off the table and twirled around her desk, "But that look was very good! Very very good! Very cute! Daddy likes it!"

Eyes now half-lidded, she looked at him bemusedly, "You said not to use the 'daddy' act anymore right? Or would you rather I erase your contact off my phone?" She watched as he hurriedly quietened down, his face serious, "You know, Haruhi…" She held her breath as he sat on the chair in front of her desk and leaned forward to rest his arms on her table top, his face three inches away from her own. His violet eyes matched to her deep brown for several seconds before he blinked and looked away, stifling a yawn, "Ah, nevermind."

She slowly let out her breath and felt her heart pounding, 'What's this? All he did was to stare at me the way I stared at him! I should be worried, I am worried. Why is my heart beating so fast?'

She tried to regain her composure by looking at the direction he was looking at now, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly, "Whatever you say, senpai." She heard him sigh and then chuckle a little, and looked at him, a little confused. She stared as he got up from the seat; dust himself off, 'He looks really good. Oh, wait, I can't be thinking that…' She watched as he smiled gently at her, his hand on her cheek, and then watched wordlessly as he moved towards the door.

'Not today, not now, not ever. Not till I've gained that top goal in my life…' Haruhi thought determinedly, and nodded sub-consciously as she heard Tamaki talking to her from the door. He seemed to brighten up at whatever she'd just nodded stupidly too, 'Oh dear… I'd better ask him later what I just nodded in agreement to…'

------

Tamaki was busy trying to 'communicate' with Haruhi by having that staring contest while he faced her in front of her desk; unfortunately for him, he felt a yawn rising and had to break their eye contact, "Ah, nevermind…" unaware that he'd said it out loud. He jumped a little when he heard Haruhi reply his thoughts. 'Argh, I'm such a twerp sometimes…'

He sighed and laughed a little, earning him a confused look by the cross-dresser next to him, "Well, I shall be off then. The other students should be coming in soon…" He got up, dusting his pants and straightening his blazer then his tie. He looked down at the girl whom he thought of on nights when he couldn't get to sleep, the girl whom he felt strongly for, but still unsure whether he really felt for her that strongly after all… the girl whom he adored most after all this while… and saw her staring back at him with her large deep, warm brown eyes. Smiling, he cupped his palm along the frame of her face for a moment before he turned to walk off. Before he walked out of the classroom, he turned back and looked at her, "Will you be here tomorrow morning? Earlier?" She nodded to him, and he turned the door knob, "Okay, see ya later, Haruhi!" He flashed his famous princely smile and disappeared out the door.

Once the door close, he leaned against the door and heaved out a sigh and rubbed his face, his heart was pounding like he just finished sprinting from one end of the campus and back again in top speed. The only other people who could make him feel this worked up were his parents actually. But they didn't usually make him feel good having a pounding heart. They either had him in anxiety, or in frustration. This sort of pounding, it felt oddly happy. He felt a smile creep to his face as he pushed away from the door and laughed softly. This sort of heart pounds, he realised suddenly, it was telling him that he really liked her. A lot.

Walking towards the flight of stairs that would bring him to his classroom, he frowned slightly, hadn't he always like _like_ her? He had, hadn't he? But she never really said she liked him back. She never showed it. He'd try and find out though. Soon enough, he'd have her confessing her love for him, he grinned inwardly, his inner theatre rolling out a scene where she'd openly declare her love for him in front of everyone, including the twins and the whole club clientele.

"Tamaki! Wait up!" He snapped out of his day dream and turned around to face the person who'd just called out to him, it was Kyoya.

"You're pretty early today… what brings you to school at this early hour?" Kyoya looked at him suspiciously, the short jog and sprint up the stairs waking his senses up a little more. He really hated mornings. He watched as Tamaki smiled brightly at him, "Father had me wake up early today… so we could have breakfast and go to school together… I bumped into Haruhi in her classroom just now too! I didn't know she'd be in school this early!"

"Ah, she's usually in school by seven-thirty… So, how did last night go? You were incomprehensible last night, what about going to Haruhi's place… It was the only thing you said coherently last night." Kyoya let out a yawn, "You, Suou Tamaki… cost me four hours of valuable sleep. Now, explain yourself." Tamaki smiled and started his rambling, "Oh! I have to thank you first though, Kyoya! I followed your advice on being a friend and…"

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"Hikaru! Kaoru!" Tamaki called out. It was three p.m. and Haruhi still hadn't arrive for club meeting. He'd wanted to get the meeting started so that he could announce their outing to Hokkaido.

"Yes, milord?" Both twins chorused together. Hikaru was idling on one side of the couch, and Kaoru was sprawled out, head on his older brother's lap, feeling bored.

"Where is Haruhi? Is she alright? Did she get kidnapped?" Their lord asked impatiently, pacing around frantically. He knew that she was in the library, probably losing track of her time, busy studying. Still, he wanted to worry. Worrying over her was to stop worrying about his grandmother's insults, to stop worrying about his mother who was probably, hopefully, still in France. He liked worrying over Haruhi. It helped him carry on with his flamboyancy, he realised.

He paused mid-step to look at the twins, both of whom shrugged, "She's probably running over now…" Hikaru replied. "She said she'd be in the library…" Kaoru stated, yawning. It was a hot and humid afternoon. Summer was approaching soon in a few weeks.

"Sorry I'm late!" Haruhi let herself into the Third Music Room's spare room, where the host club usually hold their meetings. She was panting heavily as she'd just run from the First Library all the way up. She put her bag down on the table and sat down heavily on the chair next to Kyoya's.

"You're late, Haruhi! Okaa-san, our daughter isn't learning punctuality!" Tamaki whined to Kyoya, who merely pushed his glasses up his nose bridge and nodded, "Haruhi, please try to be earlier next time." He typed noisily over his laptop, pausing for a while to look up at the twins on the sofa, "Hikaru, Kaoru, get over to the table, meeting's about to start."

The twins moved over to the table obediently and Tamaki started the host club meeting, eager to tell them of their trip.

"Hokkaido!" Haruhi asked, bewildered. "Tamaki-senpai, why Hokkaido?"

"Because his father has a huge place there right in the city center. It'll be easy to move around too." Kyoya answered the question for Tamaki, getting into the fuller details that had the remaining four hosts listening. Tamaki sat down on the couch, listening as his best friend ran through the points and smiled. As soon as Kyoya finished briefing, he turned around to look at them, "It'll be a fun trip, I'm sure of it!"

"But, senpai… There's exams the week after that! We need to study!" Haruhi pointed out the obvious, causing Mori-senpai to nod in agreement. "Haru-chan! Tama-chan! Let's have a study group before the customers get there! It'll be fun!" Hunny-senpai suggested happily, throwing usa-chan up in the air and catching it.

The twins were already wheeling out the whiteboard and were scribbling all over it, "Milord! We could do cosplays there, right? How about this?" They dragged him over to the board and presented some designs to him. Tamaki was nodding readily, happy at their enthusiasm. Soon the three of them were huddled together, discussing about what Haruhi ought to wear while there. Haruhi slid further into her chair and looked at Mori-senpai who was seated directly across from her. He offered her a smile, stating that he understood how she felt about the three boys huddled together, planning on some outrageous stint to get her to dress femininely.

"This is outrageous…" She muttered to herself, sighing loudly.

"Haruhi, do you have an issue with the arrangements? We've agreed to have the study group for two days while we're there. Besides, we'd be back before Sunday, so you don't have to worry about not getting to school on time the next day. If it'll make you at ease, I'll send for a driver to pick you up from your home at seven on Monday when school starts again." Kyoya said, still typing on his laptop, pausing for a moment to turn to look at her, before continuing with his work.

Haruhi sat up in her chair and slouched over the table, stifling a yawn, "Yes, I have an issue with the arrangements, senpai. I don't want to go for this trip; I've been lagging behind in my work. Unless you haven't noticed, I'm only third in my grade. I need to be first, and you know I'm on scholarship money senpai, _his_ father's money." She replied, staring at the said person.

Hunny smiled brightly at her, "If you study hard enough, Haru-chan, you can become the most intelligent girl in school!" She couldn't help but smile fondly back at the pint-sized senior and agreed with him.

"Hokkaido, eh?" She mumbled to herself as she stretched in her chair. It was going to be one hell of a week; she just hoped her father wouldn't pack in those ridiculously expensive frilly, girly clothes this time.

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	5. Mesmerised

**Just so you know; I hope I can get this done in two more chapters. Or maybe three:P I know! It's like some kill-joy information, but then… I have better stories coming up! Now, aren't you getting excited? A few more chapters and we're done! Yay! Oh oh! Has any of you like, received those free IKEA catalogues? I just adore those books! They've got so many cheap, mass manufactured goods! I just got the new 2006/07 catalogue! But I have to say I preferred last year's one better. **

**-i-cannot-think-of-a-title-chapter.oh,sigh.-just.kidding. Oh, there's fluuuuuff for all your fluffy fluffers.**

**Mesmerised.**

It's just one of those afternoons, where Haruhi found her self stuck fast in-between Ouran's most famous twins. 'Hitachiin twins, to be exact.', She thought bemusedly, twiddling her thumbs in an attempt to send out a message to the totally oblivious pair sitting either side of her, that she, Fujioka Haruhi, was not laughing at their crude jokes, nor was she entertained by their incest act. She was sending out, _attempting to_ _send out_, a message that weakly voiced, "I'm so bored."

Haruhi was trapped, basically. Peering over the couch's back, she found herself staring, at none other than the French-blooded, Japanese-obsessed senior, Suou Tamaki. 'Has he been staring over here for a long time already? He seems moody. And tired.' She moved her view of focus away from the moody 'Prince' and observed the raven-haired teenager next to him, who was typing on his laptop furiously. It was rare to see the two of them sitting next to each other during club hours. 'Well, it's rare of me to be sitting _here_ during club hours, truthfully speaking.'

"Haruhi…" Kaoru prodded at her sides, causing her to turn back to face the amber eyed male, "Yes, Kaoru?"

"Bingo! Hahahaha! See? Only Haruhi knows!" Hikaru grinned heartily as he waved his long arms around, much to the customers' pleasure. Apparently, they thought his actions brought out the boyishness in him. Haruhi sank back into the couch, "I was used as another bet again, wasn't I? Ah… Kaoru, stop that, you'll only–"

At this point, Kaoru had tried to pick up a piece of cake with only his thumb and forefinger, causing the cake to obviously crumble and mess its surrounding areas, "Ahhh…! My cake!", "Hikaru! What do you think-?", "Kaoru!" Haruhi sighed and refused to move a single muscle, not that she didn't want to, she wasn't actually allowed to. The twins were at their incest act, and she was stuck in-between them. Whoever designated for the three of them today was obviously out of their minds. "Excuse me." She cut through the both of them; however, they were still stuck fast together. Wordlessly, she tried squirming her way out of their inseparable clutches, but it was impossible. Giving up for a moment, she mildly heard the fan girls screaming at the twins' brotherly love act, while the other customers were gushing over how helpless 'Haruhi-kun' was looking right now, stuck in-between them.

Craning her neck over, the first person she saw was Tamaki, 'Argh, better him than to be stuck here… I can't breathe!'

"Tamaki-senpai! HELP ME!" She started coughing as the twins squeezed around her even more. It was probably the realization at her voice being so strained, that it sounded pretty much in pain that brought Tamaki out of his moody reverie. He jumped up from his seat and looked around for her, only to realize that Mori-senpai had walked over to separate the boys; forcefully pushing their heads as far away from each other, while Hunny-senpai took the liberty of the moment to pull Haruhi out from between them and led her a few feet away from the now-struggling twins. "Mori-senpai! Stop that!" She momentarily heard Hikaru yell, "Yea! Ah! Mori-senpai! You totally ruined the moment!" Kaoru added.

Mori-senpai merely ruffled their hair, face set in a slight frown and stepped forwards to appear next to Hunny-senpai, "You nearly suffocated Haruhi. We can't have that."

"Haru-chan, are you okay?" The petite senior asked, still holding Haruhi's wrist, his inquisitive face peering up at her closely, worriedly.

"Uh… yeah. Thank you, senpai…" She replied, having finally caught her breath.

"Haruhi! My poor daughter! How could those unscrupulous twins do this to my darling daughter?" Tamaki rushed over to her side, dragging her off so that she ended up, some how, in between two people again. 'This time, thank god, it's only Kyoya-senpai and Tamaki-senpai… But, still…. With him like that, being so melodramatic…' She sighed heavily, out of relief and of annoyance. If she was going to go through this for the whole of the golden week- "Yes, you _are_ still going to Hokkaido even through all this, Haruhi. You seem to have a never-ending debt to pay, some way or another." Kyoya-senpai spoke out to her softly, causing her to jump slightly, 'What was he? Telepathic?' He started flipping through the pages in his file, "It's not much more, but I can assure you… By the end of this year, you're done with your debts. You can choose to stay and earn some easy money, hosting the girls, or you could leave and like what the rest of them have always wanted, dress up more femininely around school." He stopped flipping through and scribbled a few words, pausing for an effect, "or perhaps, we could work out a way where you could do both at the same time."

Haruhi looked at him wordlessly, and watched him smile at her; and for once, she thought that he didn't exactly look all that lethal, "But, if you keep disrupting host activities like that, your debts will rocket up even higher." She slapped herself mentally, there was _no way_, no absolute way that this money-obsessed, bespectacled youth, standing right to her left, could ever _not_ be lethal when it came to her paying off of debts. "I wasn't the one who started it. The twins clamped me in between them. I had no choice in the seating arrangements either way." Looking down at the pressing weight over her shoulders, she realized Tamaki had his arm slung over protectively. She picked it off gently and walked back to her customers, "Why don't we go over to the other side there?" She pointed to an empty table just a few feet away, away from all the chaos, "It's much quieter there than over here after all."

The girls agreed readily and walked over, laughing and gushing over Mori-senpai's earlier intervention mission over the twins, who were now skulking over to her, "Haruhi, you could've just told us you couldn't breathe! You shouldn't have called for help at all!" Hikaru grumbled, and Kaoru sat next to his twin gingerly, "But Hikaru, we were partly to blame as well…"

"Kaoru, I didn't upset you, didn't I?" Hikaru turned to his twin, already back into the whole brotherly love act, holding one of his younger brother's hands, "Well, just a little…" Kaoru replied, playing along with the game. Haruhi sighed and turned to her customers, smiling at them, "Don't bother about them, they'll get over it soon…" The girls had been worried that one of the twins (mostly just Kaoru) would end up crying, and Hikaru being the hot-tempered one, would lose his cool over his twin; probably ending up as a fight between the two of them.

True to her words, the twins ended up hugging each other again, happy tears streaming down their faces; thankfully without Haruhi being stuck in the middle. "Haruhi-kun, why do you understand the twins so easily?" One of her customers asked, causing the other two girls to sit forward, interested in the matter. "Well, er… I'm not sure myself. They're just plain different to me some how, I suppose…" She trailed off lamely, glancing over at the twins, who were now grinning away like identical Cheshire cats.

"Because Haruhi's a wonderful friend, that's why!" Hikaru told the girls happily, popping a sweet into his mouth.

'This is going to be such a long day. Hopefully Tamaki-senpai will be able send me home today…", She mused, eyes travelling by themselves only to find them looking at the said person, who was now being designated; his moody and tired air from before entirely gone. He was smiling and laughing along with his customer, a second year girl from the B class. He suddenly looked up, smiling and their eyes met for the briefest of moments, before he looked away. But for that tiny moment in time, she swore she saw him winking at her. It was a tiny wink, but nonetheless, he winked.

Smiling to herself, she focused her attention back at her customers, it was a really long day ahead.

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"Haruhi! Wait up!" Club activities had ended, and while the two cousins and the twins had left long before, Haruhi stayed back to wash the teacups, plates and utensils that were being used in the hour before. She'd just finished washing them and was walking down the corridor of the third floor. It was Tamaki-senpai and Kyoya-senpai. Tamaki ran to catch up with her, while Kyoya was busy talking on his mobile phone.

"Tamaki, I have to leave you here for today. I have some business to tend to in a while, see you tomorrow. Goodbye, Haruhi." Kyoya snapped his phone shut, arranging his tie properly. He gave a little wave as he walked back towards the clubroom.

"Kyoya, the entrance is this way…" Tamaki stopped and pointed in the direction they were just walking to. "I've got the car waiting for me at the back entrance. See you!" Kyoya paused while he prepared to walk down the flight of stairs a few feet away from the clubroom.

Tamaki turned back, to find Haruhi looking as Kyoya disappeared down the stairs, and focusing her attention back at him, "Ah, senpai… what is it?" He couldn't help but blush slightly. The girl was just too cute with whatever she did. 'Why do I always end up this way in front of her? Get a grip on yourself, Tamaki!' He shook his head and smiled fondly at her, "Nothing. Need a ride home?" He looked down the corridor and started walking slowly, so that she could walk comfortably with his pace.

"Sure, that'll be great!" He didn't expect her to agree so readily. Usually, she'd reject his offer. He sneaked a glance at her and found her looking a little tired, "It's been a hard day for you, eh?" he commented, undoing his tie and unbuttoning the top two buttons. "Yeah, what with the twins… Whoever designated for the three of us today was out of their minds… Really…" She shifted her bag to her other hand, it was getting rather heavy. As if sensing her discomfort, Tamaki took the briefcase out of her hands, "I'll carry it for you. Here, you can carry mine. I have a locker in school after all…" Haruhi took his briefcase, thankful for the help.

"You know, Tamaki-senpai…" She started, looking out of the windowed corridor, "We agreed that you'd call me Tamaki after school, didn't we?" He interrupted, his voice a little disappointed.

"Only once we're out of school, remember?" She laughed care-freely, looking up at him, "Anyway, you know… I was thinking recently… You're not that bad if you're not your flamboyant, obnoxious self…" He nodded, unable to reply, blushing slightly again, "Mmhmm…" They were now just outside the doors of the school building. The school was empty of students now, so they were the only ones left walking down the lane to the main entrance. The limo hadn't reached yet.

"I was thinking… I like that much better. It suits you better too." She concluded, and stopped as the limo turned into the school. They could wait for the limo to drive in, so why bother walking any further? 'Maybe schooling here's changing my own perspective…' She thought silently, vowing to herself not to make such behaviour a habit. They'd gotten into the limo now, and Tamaki could only get into the vehicle silently, having not said a word. It was after they'd driven out of the campus did he look at her shyly, "Y-you think so, Ha-Haruhi?"

"Yes, of course." She looked at him, sinking into the limo's soft leather seats. Oh, it was just so comfy… She tried to stay awake as she watched the older boy smile gratefully at her, "Thank you, Haruhi…" She yawned and shifted in her seat; her thinking hazed, 'Oh, the air-conditioning is so, so good… and his voice is just so warm and nice when he calls my name…'

"Haruhi…?" Tamaki frowned at the girl, was she… sleeping? He shifted so that he could sit forward, staring intently at the girl in front of him, "Oi, Haruhi……" He prodded at her knee, earning him a huge yawn from her. He felt his ears grow hot as she blinked at him sleepily, "What is it, senpai?" His blush receded, and he started to pout. "You said you'd call me Tamaki outside school, after school… no 'senpai' remember?" It was obvious she wasn't listening the moment he heard her mumble a soft, "Mm'kay…" and he smiled at the sleeping form fondly. He really loved the way her face was so peaceful when she slept. The one other time he'd seen that was when she was in the exact same limo, when they were going to the dessert shop to get some food for his father for supper that night. He adored the way her bangs of hair would drop over her long lashes, it was just too irresistible, and he just had to push it aside. But of course, he did not. He knew he didn't have the right to spoil that angelic image in front of him. He got his breath taken away every time she took a breath in. He was mesmerised by the perfection in front of him.

'Do I really love her that much?' He wondered to himself, 'Mother… she did once tell me about how true love was… This has got to be it, right?' He let his eyes idly rest on Haruhi's face again, those lips… so soft. 'Oh, if only mother was here… she'd know what to tell me; whether this was the right sort of love to feel in true love.' that nose… so cute. He looked out of the window of the car; they were nearing Haruhi's home now. He'd told the driver to take an extremely long and slow drive back to her home, since he wanted to watch her sleep just a tad longer. He knew he shouldn't be doing that, but she looked so peaceful sleeping, he didn't have the heart to wake her up.

Stifling a yawn himself, he took in a deep breath, 'It's got to be it. She's _it_.' His face becoming serious and eyes determined, he decided, that he; Suou Tamaki, was in love with the sleeping beauty in front of him. Never mind that she was too dense to everything around her, he could try talking to her with his serious attitude, the one she'd just admitted to him that she liked so much. Never mind that she was a commoner, she couldn't very well be one, since her father used to own such branded clothes- "Tamaki-bocchama, we've reached." A gentle voice sounded over the intercom, and he grunted a response. "Oh no, the clothes…" He sighed, "Oh well, tomorrow I'll get it sent over." He moved over to Haruhi's side and watched her as she breathed deeply.

"Haruhi…" He whispered; his face a few inches away from hers, "Ha-ru-hi…" He tried again. He'd been at it for some ten minutes already. Maybe he ought to knock at her door to see if her father was in, or maybe he ought to try waking her up again. He did still have that phobia of Ranka-san.

Shaking the petite frame in front of him slightly, he decided to try one last time, "Harhi… wake up…" She grunted softly in response and continued sleeping. "To the door it is…" He stepped out of the limo and stretched, trying to wake the girl up while she was in such a deep sleep was a tough job indeed; especially when he didn't have the heart to even wake her up himself.

He suddenly found himself standing outside her door, and turned to look back downstairs, ensuring that the driver had closed the door so that she was kept unseen from the outside world. He couldn't have others knowing how beautiful she looked when she was sleeping. Knocking on the door, he waited. Three more tries later, Tamaki found himself walking back down the corridor to get his phone from the limo to give a call to Kyoya to ask where Ranka-san's workplace was, the door opened slowly, "What is it?"

"Ah, Ranka-san…" Tamaki turned back, looking at the sullen faced cross dresser, "Haruhi fell asleep in my limo again… I've been trying to get her to wake up but she's not even budging… If it's not too much of a trouble, could you get her?" Tamaki found out that the only way to talk to her father was to be dead serious. He wasn't sure if that would work now, since the older man looked pissed as hell. Fortunately for Tamaki that evening, Ranka-san merely grunted and told him to hold on for a while. "Ranka-san, I'm sure Kyoya has already informed you of next week's Hokkaido trip?" Tamaki ventured the question, glancing at the older man who nodded at him, "You'd better take care that she's not alone if a thunder storm brews. You know how she is when there're those storms…" Ranka said seriously, looking at Tamaki nodded back at him silently. They reached the parked limo and waited as the driver opened the door to retrieve Haruhi's bag.

"Now, this is the final time I'm teaching you how to wake my daughter up, alright? I thought you've seen it once before?" The sullen man barked at him, somewhat back to his grumpy mood, getting into the limo and taking his daughter's bag from the driver. Pulling at his daughter's arm, he dragged the girl out of the limo noisily, careful not get her head bumped on the hard surfaces of the limo as they got out, "Haruhi, come on! Wake UP! We're home…"

The sleepy girl rubbed her eyes tiredly, not at all annoyed to be so rudely woken, "Eh? Tamaki, why so fast? I was enjoying that really nice seat…" She yawned and blinked sleepily at the sudden brightness, "Dad? Is that you? What are you doing out here?" Tamaki watched as the grumpy father lightened up, "Isn't she just the cutest when she does that! Well, Suou Tamaki-kun, thank you for sending my cute daughter home then! Bye bye! Come on, darling daughter, let's go home" Haruhi squinted at Tamaki as her father led her back into the condominium and she waved to him, "Senpai, thank you!" He smiled and waved back, a twitch in his heart beat, not bothering if she'd forgotten to call him just by his name. Oh, he was definitely in love; madly in love too. He was going to make sure she knew that, in due time.

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	6. Black Squid Ice Cream

**I think three more chapters ought to do it. ;) There's spoilers in this chapter though. It's got episode 24 stuff in it. Minor details, but it's in there. P**

**Black Squid Ice Cream. **

Tamaki had taken Haruhi out from the twins' villa early that morning. He was still rather unhappy that the twins won that round of rock, paper, scissors in a bid to see with whom Haruhi would stay with before the customers would arrive in two days time. By right, they ought to stay in his villa while they were in Hokkaido, since he'd been the one to arrange for the entire trip. But since Hunny-senpai had apologised and said that he had some training to do at his Hokkaido home since he was lagging behind, the twins took the opportunity to ask Kyoya if they could too, stay over at their own villa until the day before the girls' arrived. Tamaki initially thought his best friend would side with him and not agree to it, but Kyoya actually allowed them to do so, saying that he had some business to tend to while in Hokkaido and that what they did before business was their own time and targets. Hence, while he'd realised Haruhi's study time was gone, and that she was to stay over at the twins' place for four days till Wednesday, Tamaki made a condition with the twins that he could bring Haruhi out as and when he wanted. The twins didn't agree to it at first, but when Haruhi said she didn't mind going out for a while, the twins dropped the matter. They'd been to Hokkaido too many times to bother with what was good or not good there, they didn't feel like going out at all.

So, that was how Tamaki found himself seated next to Haruhi in the limo, driving into the city centre of Hokkaido. Although Kyoya had thankfully passed him a stack of notes they'd created the day they'd decided to plan of this trip (along with the time Kyoya happily planned during middle school only to be turned down by Tamaki himself the moment he'd suggested it), he ran through the many places to bring Haruhi to again in his mind, 'First we've so got to try those ice creams. And the melon snacks! Oh, that biscuit coated chocolates; we've got to buy tonnes of boxes of those… I've got to remember to make reservations for the girls' too; a small gift box for each of them; and a huge gigantic box for Haruhi!'

"Ah, Tamaki-senpai… Let's go and try the ice cream! I heard Kyoya-senpai saying the ice creams here were great!" Haruhi sat up in the limousine, excited that someone was bringing her out for some sightseeing. The twins had dolled her up again today, and while Tamaki didn't like the idea of the twins knowing her proportions, he was glad that they did their job really well. They had her wear a pale blue, flowery sundress and some tie-on sandals. They even had her dolled up with her usual twin ponytail wig. Overall, the twins were good at dolling Haruhi up, so Tamaki was happy that she was well taken care of in that area.

"No more 'senpai', Haruhi… it's really irking me…" Tamaki frowned, drawing himself back to reality as he shifted in his seat, facing her. She smiled sheepishly, apologising, "I've told you before, and it's just weird…" He softened his frown and smiled, "Well, get used to it then, Haru-chan…" He'd taken the liking to start calling the nickname Hunny-senpai had coined for her, watching her nod and as she immediately gazed out at the passing scenery in new found interest, "There're so many eateries! Can we go there, Tamaki?"

He nodded, and informed to the driver over the intercom, telling him to drop them at the nearest drop-off point. As the door opened, Tamaki stepped out first and placed his sunglasses on to keep out the sun's glare, and offered out his hand to Haruhi to hold on to as she got out. Almost immediately, they'd been surrounded by passer-bys, whispering at each other about his limousine and at how good the two of them looked together. Tamaki smiled to himself as he followed an oblivious Haruhi around the street. He liked this. If she liked this, the way things were, him bringing her around town to try out food, or go window shopping, he'd only be happy to do this for the rest of his life.

"Tamaki! Let's try this shop!" Haruhi took hold of his wrist excitedly and dragged him into the shop, "Honestly, you should try to keep up!" She smiled at him and ordered a lavender-flavoured ice cream. She took the cone of ice cream from the now-smitten girl from over the counter, "Want to try some?" she held out the cone to him. He'd remembered this scene. Back last year, to be exact; she'd done the exact same thing to Hikaru. Just that this time, no one was around to stop him from actually eating out from her food. Grinning, he took a bite out of the tip of the ice cream and tasted it, "Mmmm… it's delicious!"

He really liked the taste of it; maybe he'd fly some back to Tokyo for his father. Peering through the display, he wondered what other ice creams tasted as nice too. "Um miss, what flavours do you recommend?" He asked, still observing the various ice creams shown. There was green tea, apple, pear, grapefruit, milk, triple chocolate, rum and raisins, black squid, caramel and banana, black sesame, lavender, wasabi, camomile… the display was never ending, it was every flavour he could think of just popped out there, in the display!

The smitten ice cream girl stammered, "W-well, I r-r-real-really reco-me-me-mend t-t-the la-lavender o-one you just t-t-t-tasted!" Confused, he straightened up and looked at Haruhi, "She just recommended Lavender right? The one you're having now?" He looked back at the display and heard his companion mumbled an "Mmhmm…" as she continued enjoying her ice cream.

"Well, can I place an order then?" He looked over at the girl, who was now smiling and blushing away madly. He didn't really like having to act his usual flamboyant self while he was out with Haruhi on a serious… date, but he couldn't possibly scare the poor stammering girl off with an attitude like Kyoya's…

Smiling, he managed to persuade the blushing girl to get her manager out. By then, Haruhi had already ordered a huge cup of black squid ice cream. He'd tried to warn her of it, but he was too busy placing his many orders with the manager to do so; only managing to get her to give him about a third of her portion while he discussed transportation of the ice creams. She protested about him trying to eat up all her ice cream and ended up giving him her cup and ordering another.

By the time they walked out of the shop twenty minutes later, the both of them were laughing at each other, their entire oral cavities all coloured a deep dark purple, all thanks to the black squid ice cream.

The two of them then walked around the city, going into most of the shops that interested either of them, looking through the many products displayed. Soon, they found themselves about to walk into a small restaurant for lunch when Haruhi's mobile phone rang. Tamaki stood close to her, trying to listen in on her conversation, but couldn't really get it. He gave up half way and stood on the pathway outside the restaurant, an eye trained on her, while the other watching as other commoners passed them by. "Hunny-senpai just called." Haruhi said to him, putting her phone back into her bag, "He asked if we'd like to go over to his place for lunch? Mori-senpai's there too!" She smiled, looking up at his face to get a better look, but since Tamaki was standing in the glaring sun she couldn't see his face very well.

"Well, do you want to go to his place for lunch? I'm alright with it, you know, Tamaki?" She walked off in the general direction that was leading to Hunny-senpai's place. "Uh, sure okay then…" He replied, walking behind her, carrying some of the paper bags that contained their purchases. She was reluctant of it at first, but he'd insisted that he'd get anything she wanted, for her father and his friends, for the twins or the two cousins, for Kyoya, or even for herself. Secretly, he hoped she'd get something for him, and she did, but of course, since he was the one paying, he bought it for himself. She'd told him to get some sunblock and moisturising lotion for his skin, reminding how he'd been badly sunburnt while they were at the beach.

"I'll call for the car, why don't we wait here under the shade first, Haruhi?" He put the bags down carefully and reached into his pockets to retrieve his mobile phone and started dialling before she could protest. Either way, he didn't want to walk around town carrying all those bags, it was getting rather heavy, since he volunteered to carry everything save for a tiny bag which he said she could take. He quickly gave the driver their location, and watched as Haruhi walked back and stood next to him, her eyes still excited and inquisitive over everything around them, "Tamaki, shall we go visit the temples later after lunch? Maybe Hunny-senpai and Mori-senpai could come with us too, if they've got nothing on…" She asked him after he ended the phone call. Personally, he'd rather go with her alone, but he didn't really mind them coming along, maybe the twins could join them too, they were going to the temple after all…

"Sure! That'll be fun! The twins could come along too, but I'm not too sure about Kyoya, he's been running around Hokkaido doing some family business things…" He mused out loud, reaching to the bags and looking for the bottle of water he'd purchased earlier on.

"Tamaki…" He looked up and saw the fair-skinned girl look at him curiously, "How about you? Don't you have your family business to run too? Doesn't your father give you something to do as well?" He glanced back into the bags and pulled out the bottle, taking a swig out of it, "Yeah, he does give me things to do, but I've already completed them. It's just simple things like visiting his clients and partners to see how they're doing, you know… Nothing as crazy as Kyoya's assignments though." He smiled at her, offering the bottle to her, which she took from him and took a sip out from. The limousine rolled up to them, and the driver parked the vehicle before coming out to help them with their bags, "Young Master, you seem to have enjoyed today's shopping spree…" He'd commented, it was the fourth trip from the curb to the limousine, and under the hot glaring sun and in his driver's uniform, Tamaki's driver started to sweat a little.

Tamaki smiled, and took a few bags up to help him, "Yes, we did!" He handed the remaining bags to the driver and gave him the directions to Hunny-senpai's residence. He'd been there a few times before, over the new years' gatherings.

He hoped they'd get some of the delicious beef steak that the chefs at Hunny-senpai's could do. They were the most terrific!

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Haruhi found herself seated next to Tamaki as lunch was served. She didn't really have a thing for beef steak, but since Tamaki told her that the chefs at Hunny-senpai's place were the masters of creating the best beef steaks around Hokkaido, she decided she'd to try some. After all, Hokkaido had always boasted themselves to have the best fatty beef steaks around.

She looked around the room; it was big, bright and airy. 'Oh right, senpai (Hunny) doesn't like cramped spaces…' she mused, thoughts flashing back to his attempt to scare her by locking themselves up in the Ootori private police truck when they were spending a weekend at the beach. The small guy got frightened in the end, he was claustrophobic.

The steak came and inhaling a little, she agreed with Tamaki about why the beef steak was amongst the best around. "Itadakimasu!" The three of them (save for Mori-senpai) chirped happily and dug in. Mori-senpai muttered a quick "itadakimas'" and carefully cut his steak into pieces. Haruhi thought to herself as she cut a piece of the steak and chewed on it, savouring its taste; that was probably how he was being brought up, to cut up everything in his plate into equal portions before consuming them… 'Or maybe he just likes to cut things up…' She looked up and found him smiling softly at her, and she grinned back at him. He looked like a big older brother to her all the time, and she was glad for that.

They were halfway through their meal when Tamaki voiced out that the steak tasted really good. Haruhi turned and looked at him and found him looking ridiculous with his mouth half full and talking at the same time. "Tamaki, don't talk with your food in your mouth, it's disgusting!" She commented, trying not to laugh. "You too! You've got your mouth full! You're disgusting!" Tamaki retorted, stuffing another piece of meat in his mouth, imitating her, "See? Like that!"

They exchanged stares at each other, each chomping down on their food as they turned back to their plates.

"Tama-chan, Haru-chan, be quiet and let's enjoy the meal!" Hunny-senpai interrupted them, smiling as he waved his knife and fork around.

After lunch, like what Takashi had imagined his older cousin to be doing, he found himself seated next to Tamaki in the shade and cool of the house as he watched Mitsukuni and Haruhi sitting by the stream, dipping their bare feet in to enjoy the coolness and the peacefulness of the flowing water.

"Tamaki." He stated the younger boy's name, pausing for a few seconds before turning his eyes to look at the blonde-haired boy, he usually found no need to speak the host club president, merely to just use a few muscles to twitch his face it whatever direction and position to display his questions. Today, he merely raised an eyebrow at the younger boy, and broke eye contact with him while he glanced back at the girl in question, seated next to his cousin and back at the boy.

Tamaki seemed to have gotten his question wrong today, grinning up at him, "She looks gorgeous, doesn't she?" Takashi wished he could slap his forehead for once, "Tamaki. Not that." He tried again, should he just break his taciturn character just for this while? Maybe he should, he was curious why the host club king was doing with the lovely Haruhi alone, on this day. "What were you two doing before this?" 'There, that wasn't too bad. Seven words.' Takashi looked back at his cousin who was now setting a leaf on the stream, and leaned against the pillar, and picked up the cool glass of lemonade.

Tamaki's grinned widened, "We went shopping today! Oh, if Hunny-senpai and you are free after this, perhaps we could go to the temple up the hill over there?" Takashi's eyes followed in the direction where Tamaki was now pointing, and he mentally flipped through his and Mitsukuni's timeline schedule for the day, "Sorry, we can't. Mitsukuni would fall asleep and I still have my training to do."

Tamaki's grin fell and he shrugged, "Oh, well, Haruhi wanted the two of you to come along with us. We're not sure whether to invite the twins since they said they're bored of Hokkaido somewhat… Kyoya's not free today, so I won't bother asking him along." Takashi bit back an urge of guilt at the younger boy's disappointment, but before he could apologise any further, the French boy smiled at him, "But that would give me more alone time with her, won't it?" Takashi smiled and nodded, and he stood up.

"Mitsukuni, it's time for your nap." Takashi called out, and looked at Tamaki; studiously staring at the pale boy, "Make sure she's happy, Tamaki." He watched as Tamaki nodded once and waited for the two others to walk back in, "Excuse us for staying for so long, Hunny-senpai, Mori-senpai. We'll see you on Tuesday. Adieu!" Tamaki bowed to the seniors, as Haruhi followed suit, "Thanks for the lunch, senpai! It was great!"

Hunny-senpai waved to them happily and yawned as they got into Tamaki's limousine that had been waiting outside for them all this while. "Takashi, Haru-chan looks really pretty today, right?" He climbed onto Takashi's shoulders as they made their way to Mitsukuni's room. Takashi replied a simple, "Yeah" to his cousin's questions, "And Tama-chan looks really handsome today too, right?", "Tama-chan knows he likes her already right?" Takashi smiled and turned his head slightly as his cousin looked down at him, "It seems so."

Mitsukuni smiled to himself, "Then there's still hope for him yet. I wonder how the twins will react to this…"

"Tamaki, are we going to the temples now?" Haruhi looked out of the limousine's window and peered out into the sky, "I hope it doesn't rain though…" Tamaki glanced at her sharply, "You brought your ear plugs, didn't you?" she rummaged through her purse, "I don't know, Hikaru just put in my phone and my wallet… Ah, here it is…" she held them out triumphantly before putting them back. She sighed and fell back into the leather seats and yawned.

"You're not going to fall asleep again right? I'll have to drag you out like what your dad did to you the other week…" He lowered the window and looked out of it, there were indeed rain clouds gathering around. "How about I send you back to the villa before it rains too heavily, Haru-chan?"

He pressed on the button once to close the window and looked back her. She was typing a message on her phone when she paused for a moment to study him, "Don't bother… Let's go to that confectionery factory you suggested. Kyoya-senpai asked you to make some reservations for the host club right?" She continued punching the buttons in her phone for a while more before she snapped her phone shut.

Tamaki slapped himself mentally, 'The chocolates!' He grinned sheepishly at her and nodded. Directing his driver to the warehouse, he leaned back into the leather seats and relaxed, closing his eyes for a while. Soon, he dozed off next to her, unaware as she had her eyes trained on him curiously, tenderly, almost as if lovingly.

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They'd been given a detailed factory tour when they reached the warehouse. Since the Suou family had a hold in the chocolate-biscuit factory, they'd been warmly welcomed into the warehouse, given all sorts of samples to taste and try out, before being whisked away on a long hour's tour around the vicinity. Haruhi walked along side the tall blonde-haired senior, looking at the factory's layout as she listened in on Tamaki's conversation with the vicinity's managing director.

"We've had a 40 profit growth this quarter of the year alone, sir. We intend to expand the business by the end of the year too…" Tamaki listened intently, commenting wisely once in a while, "But of course, Takahashi-san, you have to realise that we do not allow the standard of the foodstuff that you produce to be of any other lower standards than what we have today…", "Oh, but of course, Suou-sama! We take great lengths to ensure the quality of our products rather than the quantity to it…" Smiling, they made their way into the conference room on the top floor of the warehouse. It was simply designed, much to Haruhi's taste as she stood by the window to inspect the view outside. It had started to drizzle as she saw a dim flash of lightning. She turned back to Tamaki to see if he was done, but he was still deep in conversation, flipping through chart books and lengthy reports slowly. She vaguely heard Takahashi-san informing Tamaki that the charts and reports he was reading now were to be sent out to his father and their other partners soon.

She couldn't help but smile at the view of him being so serious. Sure, it was weird, but she definitely liked this matured version of him. He still retained that flamboyant air around him but had this much deeper sense of… responsibility? yes, responsibility around him. It was like the time when he'd ordered for the _kotatsu_ to be a theme for one of their host club afternoons. She'd been chatting with Kyoya-senpai, asking why he (Kyoya) being the cool guy, would even bother hanging out with Tamaki, the one who always tried out crazy ideas. She'd turned to look at where Kyoya had been looking at; at Tamaki, who was getting feedback at the two cousins' table, face set seriously. She had liked that look the moment she saw it. She caught herself staring at him rather intently as she stood next to Kyoya, studying him for the moment, jumping around to face the vice president when he suddenly stated that Just because it was crazy; crazy enough for him to join in.

She frowned mentally; she shouldn't be thinking weird thoughts about Tamaki like that. Wasn't she going to Ouran for her education? 'Since when… did I even start having the habit to call him by his first name anyway?' She sat down at the conference table, eyes trained on the lightning that snaked down from the clouds, following by the thunder that drawled on for a few seconds. Habitually, she clutched onto her purse tightly, fingers turning cold. 'Ear plugs, ear plugs…' she chimed to herself, trying as much to calm herself down as she searched for the little box containing her answer to her prayers; her earlier thoughts of the boy from the Suou family immediately the last thing on her mind. How could that small box just disappear from within the equally small bag? She was starting to panic when she felt a reassuring weight on her shoulders, "Haruhi, it's alright… I'm here; let's go home, shall we?" Brown eyes met soft moving lips as she let her ears drown in his words and she nodded wordlessly while he took her purse from her and took out her ear plugs, letting her calm down a little. He handed them to her silently and waited while she put them on, thankful that he was around.

He held her around her shoulders protectively like he'd done the other day when the twins tried to do their incest act with her stuck in between them. He thanked the managing director, Takahashi-san, for the full report and detailed tour, along with the several boxes of chocolate-biscuits that the kind man had given to them, at the same time placing the orders for ninety boxes to be delivered to his villa over the next few days. Tamaki made sure to walk on the side closer to the windows, making sure Haruhi didn't get any glimpse of the weather outside. He led her to the foyer, where the driver was now waiting with the passenger doors opened for them to get in. He handed the boxes of chocolates to his driver, informing him that they'd go back to the Suou villa and that he could have two entire boxes to himself and his family, earning grateful thanks from the driver.

Guiding her into the safety of the limousine, Tamaki sat close to her, knowing she'd rather have someone she knew close to her than to be holed up in the corner of the limousine by herself.

He looked down at her as the car pulled away, he slung his arm around her again and felt her inch closer to him, and he held her close as a large bolt of lightning flashed across the sky and an angry roar of thunder rang through them. He loved storms; it made him inquisitive, it made him want to question why it even rained in the first place. He remembered asking his butler once, when he was younger, about the whole issue of storms. But his butler back in France could only come up with the most sensible, most scientific of answers: That storms were the cause of having too much static electricity and rain clouds hanging moist in the air. Right now, he wasn't inquisitive about the storm around them; he continued staring at the girl in his arms, who was now shivering slightly. Absentmindedly, he ran a finger down from her elbow and drew circles around on the back of her palm, unknowingly calming her down as she plucked up the courage to pry open a shut eye. Tamaki now stared out of the window, watching as the rain pellet down on the windows, as if washing his worries away. He felt her shift her head and looked down at her, only to find her looking up at him curiously. He offered her a tiny smile, which she returned. "Can you make beef stew for me tonight?" His smile widening as she creaked an eyebrow up, "Sure, tonight? Do you have beef in your fridge?"

That was an interesting question to ask; if he'd beef stocked up in his fridge. If they'd enough, perhaps he'd call Kyoya and the twins over for dinner too. He really didn't feel like moving from his current position, but since he had to make a few calls, he straightened up in his seat, arm still slung over her shoulder as he took his phone out and dialled home to ask the maids. A few minutes later, he hung up from his call home and smiled at her, "Too much meat actually. They supplied enough for the next one month. How about it?" He chuckled as he waited for her approval to cook tonight. "I'll call the rest over to see if they're interested, okay?" Not waiting for a reply, he started dialling for his best friend.

"Kyoya, you don't possibly have a dinner appointment with anyone tonight right? What? You were about to call me about it? Heh. Come on over then… Haruhi's cooking her great beef stew! Okay, we'll see you in a bit then!" He ended the call with Kyoya and looked at the bemused female sitting next to him and grinned sheepishly, "Well, you're cooking then! I'll help!"

"No you're not helping me out." She said firmly and sighed, "Honestly, Tamaki…… you're so weird sometimes…" She looked out of the window and saw a huge bolt of lightning flash before her eyes and she gripped onto a piece of his shirt tightly as the thunder rolled loudly. She heard him chuckle again and she turned to make a face at him and saw him dial another number onto his phone quickly.

"Hikaru? I hope you and Kaoru haven't had dinner yet… Haruhi's cooking beef stew tonight, are you interested with dinner at my place? Yeah, she seems alright to me right now… Okay, see you later then!" She sighed heavily and sank in deeper into the safe haven he made with the leather seats.

How did he feel so warm and so nice? Mutely, she thought she heard a loud roar of thunder again and she turned her face into his shirt, trying to push the fear out of her mind, coincidently inhaling in his scent. She thought hazily about how his smell was very much different to her father's, yet it held the same warm and reassuring scent. He smelt mostly of musk and wood, something she didn't possibly think he'd spray on. There was a light hint of spice too, and at that moment in time, she felt attracted to the scent that was familiar to her and breathed in deeply, trying to forget that there was a heavy thunder storm going on just a few inches away, a few millimetres away from the rain's only point of contact, the roof.

"Haruhi?" Tamaki asked, shaking her gently. He'd called all the club members to see if they were free for dinner that night. Hopefully, Haruhi would be able to cook dinner tonight. He did tell the rest of them that she'd be cooking. Hikaru had asked if she was doing okay because the thunderstorm was still raging on, and he'd told him that she was alright. Perhaps when they got to the kitchen, she'd be busy thinking of what ingredients she could use and she wouldn't be so frightened anymore.

"Haruhi……" He tugged at her arm again. Was she sleeping again? He felt the weight of her body rest on his own and realised, in full blush; that she was indeed sleeping again. This time, she was sleeping on him. She shifted slightly and he used the chance to move a little, away from her. He couldn't help but think that their position was rather intimate. 'Maybe she's attracted to me!' He thought suddenly, beaming to himself, 'or maybe not. She's like that all the time whenever there's a storm. She wasn't like that at all the other night…' He recalled the night when he visited her. Her father wasn't home that night either. He called while they were having dinner, apologising to Haruhi that he had to work overtime since his colleagues were caught in the storm.

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Tamaki tried waking her up again, since they were just turning into the Suou villa's premises. "Haruhi!" He said urgently, "Wake up, Haru-chan… we've reached home already…" The limousine pulled to a stop under the villa's porch and a butler opened the door, he'd have to drag her out like what Ranka-san did. "Haruhi, come on… let's go…" Tamaki then suddenly paused while trying to pull her up, realising that the girl still had her earplugs on. Sighing, he took off one earplug from her ear, "Haruhi, wake up! We've reached!" He said loudly, dragging her out from the limousine. She finally woke up, "Eh? Tamaki… why did you wake me up? I was enjoying my nap…" She said, rubbing her eyes. 'Damn her, why does she always have to go do that? She's just so cute!' He thought as she led her into the villa, "Well, you have to cook dinner, remember?" He turned back and smiled at her as the butler called for a few maids to help carry the many shopping bags that were found to be stored in the limousine's boot. Maybe they overspent a little today, Tamaki thought guiltily as he brought the now fully awake teenage female through the long corridors that led to the kitchen. 'But if she's happy, I'm happy…' He stopped at a magnificent door that had a small label 'KITCHEN' on it and opened it. Several large fridges lined a portion of the walls, while counter tops glistened in its glossy glory, so did the sinks and a several cupboards.

"It's a… a little huge, my kitchen… but it's good for big parties, you know…" Tamaki said weakly, looking at his shocked companion. He walked over to the intercom and pressed a button, "Where's the beef?" He held on to the button and turned to Haruhi, "Haru-chan, what else do we need in the stew?" His question seemed to snap the girl out of her shocked state as she thought furiously for a moment, "Onions, pepper, salt, sugar, water, garlic… I think that should be it… oh, there're carrots too." She looked at the cupboards and saw that each and every drawer and cupboard was labelled carefully. However, she didn't dare touch anything for fear she'd drop and create a dent in the flawless cook wares. Just then, two maids hurried in, bowing to Tamaki and addressing him respectfully. They proceeded in taking out the pots and ladles, the ingredients, even starting up the fire to boil the water for the stew. Haruhi stood by the side initially, allowing the maids to work quickly, but after a while, she gave up and went to the sink to wash her hands. She might as well start chopping up those onions and carrots.

Tamaki sat on one of the many high tabletop chairs and fiddled with his phone while he sneaked occasional glances at the petite girl in front of him. He'd been told firmly that he was to sit there and watch, and not to do anything. He couldn't help but let out a chuckle as he watched the skinny girl tear up at the onions. It was just like the other night, when she'd teared up badly and was evil enough to peel a slice of the onion right in front of his eyes. She turned back and glared at him and he shrugged, quieting down a little. Just then, the intercom sounded over the speakers at the far end of the kitchen, "Tamaki-sama, the Hitachiin brothers are here, where shall I send them?" He was half way to the speakers when the doors opened, revealing the said brothers. Reaching the intercom, he grinned at them, "They've already made their way to the kitchen… not much where you can send them now, can you? Thank you anyway."

The twins ran over to Haruhi, who promptly told them the exact same thing to Tamaki, to sit at the table top chairs and behave themselves. Tamaki stood by the intercom, waiting for the butler to announce either the cousins or Kyoya's arrival. He liked standing aside to watch the three younger students interact. Sure, it did give him pangs of jealousy that Haruhi didn't mind their crazy antics, but then, she didn't mind his either. She looked up at him across the room and their eyes connected, alert brown to the soft deep violet of his and both smiled slightly. The twins were busy poking their heads around her ingredients to catch that moment, "Tamaki-sama, Ootori-sama has arrived." He stood up and turned to the intercom, breaking eye contact with Haruhi, "Send him to the kitchen.", "Yes, sir."

He gave a long stretch. Running around town all day had tired him out slightly; he ought to try swimming more to build up his stamina. Five minutes later, the kitchen doors opened again and Kyoya stepped through, along with the two cousins. Tamaki smiled, "Well, that's all of us then! Let's go see how Haruhi's doing! Our princess cooks!" He walked alongside Kyoya, happy that for an evening, everyone was around to have fun.

He was still wrecking his brains to find a way to let Haruhi know his feelings for her… Maybe she already knew, maybe she didn't… 'Maybe, just maybe… she'd already knew all this while but like me, she just ignores it…?' He thought as he reached the other end of the kitchen once more, sitting at the table next to Kyoya who had his inseparable file opened and was busy writing in it. He stared into the file, and realised it was flipped once more, to his page. "My page again? You have many things you have to say about me, don't you, 'okaa-sama'?" He grinned at his best friend, "Anyway, the door gifts have been ordered. Ninety in total. They'll be sent over the next two days." He reached out for a paper napkin and started to fold it randomly, he'd watch the maids do it before. They always make it look too simple. Kyoya nodded, flipping over to the twins' pages, "So, how did the visit to the factory go anyway?" Tamaki let out a yawn, "Interesting! But, after a while it got boring. You know; reports and all." He watched as Kyoya gripped his pencil a little more tightly, maybe talking to Kyoya about stuff like family businesses were a little too sensitive for his best friend. He made a mental note to remind himself of future conversations with the club's shadow king. He turned to look back at the crowding group at the stove, maybe she'll stay over tonight, and maybe he could tell her how he felt about her, in the serious face of his.

"I don't think you should tell her, not now." Kyoya commented, glancing over his shoulder and back at Tamaki, "It's not advisable, we still have business to do. Our host club to run, Tamaki. She still has debts to pay. If every thing goes well this week, her debts will be settled by the end of it all. I've calculated it again last night; she's actually got roughly 90,000 yen to pay off. Fifteen more customers; and she'll be done. Tamaki, if you want to tell her anything, it's about how she can renew her contract with us to earn a bit more cash without having to work too much for it."

Kyoya snapped his file and stood up, walking over the stove to join the rest of them, leaving Tamaki to think about the information he just gave him. He smiled to himself, 'If he's smart enough…'

Perhaps, Suou Tamaki, his best friend, wasn't that stupid.

Just perhaps.


	7. The Secret Garden

**Hello there, dear readers!  
How have all of you been lately? I do thank all of you for the reviews you've sent to me! You will definitely see the changes happening (thanks to Eccentricai and L4dymercury for their constructive advice) in terms of visual formatting of the layouts. Anyway, that aside, I'm feeling a tad bit tired (waiting up for semesteral results to be sent to me via text message. I only got to sleep at 4.30am after trying to contain my excitement – I got an A for my final year project! Like yay! – okay, so anyway. Let's not talk about me, let's talk about our next chapter. Read on, dearest closet readers! I worship all you closet readers! You make my stat-happy hobby so fun!**

**Anyway, I have to painfully remind you, two more chapters and we'll be done! **

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**The Secret Garden**

It'd been three days. Three days since the dinner she cooked for them. And they still had left over beef stew. _"What're we going to do with it, milord? There's just too much left!"_ She'd clearly remembered the twins asking that question to Tamaki. He'd made them use half a month's supply of beef, much to his delight, 'Scratch that, _their_ delight.' And much to her horror. They insisted on making the maids and butlers and drivers and gardeners eat it. They were shocked, to say the least. The employees, that is. They were so shocked when Tamaki asked them to help themselves to it.

And there she was, thinking that Tamaki was just about the most charming person she'd met, bringing her around town to shop, eating all sorts of weird delicacies… And he makes his employees eat something she wasn't sure would be up to expectations, since she was after all, just a student, not a master _sous chef_.

Their reaction to the beef stew was something she didn't expect. She'd thought the boys were just pulling her leg when they said it was the best beef stew they'd ever tasted. She thought they were just saying it, because… well, because she's poor and never tasted really nice beef stews before. Because they were rich, insanely rich, filthily rich; and they knew how she could get rather cheesed off by their 'un-commoner' ingenious comments.

But the employees actually said her beef stew was delicious. Truly delicious, the best stew they'd ever tasted too. 'No, wait. Maybe Tamaki paid them extra to say that. Or wait, maybe Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai said that if they didn't say that it was delicious, they'd get their students from the dojo to come beat them up. Oh, wait, I get it. Kyoya must've threatened them into oblivion. No wonder they put on such a good act. It had to convince me after all… Or did the twins say something about hideous make-overs for all of them?' She felt her the muscle at the back of her neck twitch.

Haruhi looked up at her customers, smiling hazily, "Oh no, I'm not really into sweets. You can have them ladies, don't you love these sweets? They're made right here, in Hokkaido… I think Tamaki-senpai said it was at the red-brick factories area…"

Hadn't she said for the millionth time over, she didn't like sweets? Didn't the girls get it? She observed them a little more stringently, eyes crinkled in a light laughter, smile in place – as always. The girls swooned at her heartily. 'They seem like they knew, so why ask again?' Her mind fuzzed back at her blankly and she gave up thinking altogether, "I just don't get it…" She muttered softly as she picked up her teacup, taking a sip out of it, just enough to wet her lips.

"Don't get what, Haruhi-kun?" A girl dressed in a pretty little green floral sundress asked, ducking her head under her big bangs.

"Eh? Oh nothing… I was just thinking to myself about how I don't really get girls swooning at us…" Haruhi smiled sheepishly back at the girl, scratching the back of her head for the cute effect.

"Because you're cute, that's why!" Another of her customers said in earnest, leaning towards Haruhi, eyes hopeful.

Haruhi bit back a laugh and cleared her throat, and smiled back at them knowingly, her thoughts not exactly what the girls would imagine to be, "Ah… well… that's just a pre-requisite in joining the club, right?" She quickly ran a hand through her hair, and eyeing her customers for a while before giving her signature "natural rookie's" smile, causing the girls to swoon and sigh, some fainting even more than before. 'Maybe I'm over doing it by a little… I mean, if they knew I was a girl… what'd they do?' She thought to herself as she picked up a pocket electronic fan and turned it on, placing it in front of one of the girls, "Hey… you okay?"

Geez, it's only the second day into their Hokkaido Host Club sessions, and she'd caused over four of her customers to faint, or at least get minor nose bleeds. What ran through the girls heads over her, Haruhi shuddered; she just didn't want to know.

"Haruhi." A deep voice resonated in the air around her group. It was Mori-senpai.

"Ah, Mori-senpai… If you could please help me move this young lady over to the couch…" She stated more than asked, but he obliged anyway. Glancing up at the tall brooding senior, she studied him for a moment, "Did you have anything to tell me, senpai?"

Mori-senpai took one look at the cross dressing girl and at the girls surrounding her, maybe now wasn't the good time to tell her they'd be having meeting during lunch later. He shifted his gaze back on her, "Meeting at lunch later. Location will be finalised in a while." He gave her a single nod when she acknowledged his message, turned and left her and her entourage alone to get back to what they were busy at before he interrupted them.

"Mori-senpai is so cool! See how he just translated a whole string of words into just two short sentences!" The girls started gushing over the tall eighteen year-old, who was now seated back at his place, diagonally across from his cousin at the sofa set across the room. Haruhi turned back to her customers, "Who wants to learn how to make strawberry shortcakes?"

She ushered them back to their seats, and sat down next to a girl from her grade, from a different class and started telling them the history to strawberry shortcakes.

'How on earth did beef stew end up to being whether the customers even bothered to stop and inquire whether I was a girl or not?' Haruhi shrugged inwardly, brushing the thought aside as she launched into explaining the ingredients to her group of customers.

* * *

Lunch time came quickly and the thirty girls were ushered into the lunch hall, where Tamaki and Kyoya had lingered around to see that they were all well cared for before excusing themselves. The girls smiled happily as they mingled around with each other, discussing which host was better, or who was cuter.

Kyoya walked along side Tamaki, following the vibrant blonde-haired, violet-eye boy to the club's lunch meeting. It was to be a fast one before they zoomed back to the main dining hall to join their clients for the remaining half an hour before they paused for the rest of the afternoon. They'd have to make preparations then, for the mid-afternoon outdoors trip. Kyoya had already roped in the help of his family's private police for the security measures to make sure no commoner gets close to their customers.

"Kyoya, has Haruhi finished serving all fifteen customers as of today?" Tamaki suddenly asked him.

He looked at his best friend, who was still walking down the corridor, leading them up the winding staircase, not looking at him. He flipped through his file, no, she still had two more customers, but that was easy to deal with.

"No, she still has two more customers to go." He replied indifferently, waiting for Tamaki's reaction.

"Okay. That was all I needed to know." Was the only reply the authentic Japanese boy got from his French counterpart.

"Do you plan on telling her?" He knew it was a mundane question to ask, because either way, one of them will have to talk to her about it. If Tamaki didn't, he would. If Tamaki talked to her about it; then that's settled. He trained his eyes on his family's big-time rival, who now paused in mid step to turn back and look at him, eyes hooded by his golden helmet of soft blonde hair.

"Probably. One of us has to, right?" Kyoya sighed slightly, shrugging.

It was his way of telling his best friend, 'Whatever. You decide.'

Tamaki turned around and started walking up the stairs again; they'd reached their meeting place in less than ten steps after their little chat.

"Alright, gather around. Let's get this meeting done and over with, I'm famished! My daughter, aren't you hungry? Hikaru, Kaoru! Get down from there!" Tamaki said loudly as he reached the top of the stairs, hurrying over to the table where Haruhi and the cousins sat waiting for them. The twins were hanging precariously over them in the window seat near the ceiling. Kyoya surveyed the place. In order for the twins to get up there, they had to climb up a wall ladder. It was a nice cosy room, for a hide away, that is. Settling himself next to Tamaki, he opened up his file again, setting it down on the table and flipped to a new page and started scribbling on it.

"As of today, we've done alright so far… Haruhi, daddy's noticed you made three more girls faint today! You're getting good at this, aren't you? You make me feel so proud!" Tamaki rambled on for a few more minutes till Kyoya coughed slightly, indicating that they ought to move on to the more important tasks at hand. Tamaki immediately stopped his rambling and turned serious, going through the itinerary that Kyoya passed to him, briefing them of what is to come in the few hours.

Twenty minutes later when their meeting wrapped up, Kyoya stood up and cleared his throat, "Haruhi, please stay back for a while. There is something Tamaki and I have to discuss about with you."

He looked at Mori-senpai and Honey-senpai; they didn't question, just nodded and proceeded in dragging the twins out. The twins made a huge fuss being showed out of the room, but quietened down when Kyoya said they wouldn't take long. Kyoya looked at the girl, now seated across from him, and at Tamaki, who was now looking out of the window, his stance a little moody.

* * *

He sat back down on his chair, dragging it a little to get the other boy's attention, but to no avail.

"Tamaki, let's get this done. I'm hungry." Kyoya said impatiently, flipping to Haruhi's page as the said boy walked over and sat at the head of the table, in between the two of them.

"Haruhi, it's come to our attention that you only have two customers to serve before your debts are being fully paid off, once and for all." Kyoya stated, cutting to the chase, not bothering if Tamaki would be bothered by his words. A hungry man; was after all, an angry man.

He watched as the girl's eyes widen, clockworks in her brain starting to function, "Two more, you say?" she finally asked, looking at him.

He nodded firmly, "We now give to you a business proposition, Haruhi." He scribbled down some numbers and recalled telling her that she'd only be able to finish paying her debts only after the year and quickly looked up at her, "I know I said something you only being able to complete paying off your debt by the end of the year." He paused for a while to check on his best friend, who was now sitting next to him moodily. Kyoya just couldn't decide if the guy was just being moody, or if he was thinking of something stupid again.

"However, in lieu of this trip, you were being able to earn enough to cover the remaining 90,000 yen within serving fifteen customers." He looked back at her, smiling genuinely, happy for her, "I'm glad to say then, in serving two more customers, your debt with the club is fully paid."

He watched as she smiled at the piece of news and turned to look at his best friend and poked him in the arm with his mechanical pencil, "Tamaki. Business proposition."

His words must've had an effect on the blonde, because he suddenly blinked out of his moody reverie and looked at Kyoya, who then pointed at the smiling girl before them. He'd leave the rest to Tamaki, he was sure the blonde wouldn't screw up. It didn't matter to him whether Haruhi was in the club or not. Sure, she drew in a lot of customers; she was the second top host, nearly on par with Tamaki's draw of customers. If she'd agree to stay for the rest of the year, then it'd save him the trouble of scouting around for another boy to take over for the time being. If not, they could just make do with it.

Besides, he was too hungry to continue with the conversation. He'd have to go find some thing to fill his stomach first before he continued. Closing his file with a loud snap, he stood up looking at his 'colleagues', "How about we talk on the way down to lunch?"

Tamaki looked at his best friend stood up and walked down the spiral stairs after asking – scratch that, Kyoya never asked of anyone to do things for him – telling them to talk about the business proposition on their way back to the dining hall for lunch.

He stood up as well, pushing in his chair, as did Haruhi and waited for her to proceed down the stairs, following her from behind.

"Kyoya, we'll meet you at the dining hall, I suppose you can find your way there?" Tamaki suddenly pipped up, not quite sure why he'd actually asked his best friend the question.

Kyoya always remembered the way back after bringing him around the house once. He watched as the bespectacled boy pause in his step and turned back, nodding at him once before continuing on his trek back, giving them a friendly wave as he disappeared down the corridor.

* * *

Looking down at the clearly confused girl in front of him, he offered her a smile and took her hand, "Come on, there's something I'd like to show you…" He started walking and turned to walk, leading her in the other direction. She didn't protest one bit. He'd noticed that she was more relaxed when they were alone… 'Maybe she already knows? Should I even – will Kyoya get angry if I made my move? He didn't say anything about that. He left it hanging… I see, that sly bastard. He's giving me an option.' 

He stopped in the middle of the corridor to gain his bearings, yes, they'd reached. Fumbling over to their right, he found the door knob and turned it, and walking in, his hand still holding on to hers. He heard as she gasped, and he smiled nostalgically.

"This was a room meant for my mother, if ever I could find her again… This room," He gestured, spreading his arms out wide, "was to be for her. She loved gardens and flowers, she would've loved this." He looked down once more at the girl before him, wondering why those fan girls of hers never bothered to question why she looked so much like a girl. They usually stated that she looked like a girl, but never asking if she really was a girl or not.

He studied her all the time. And today, the moment she gasped in wonderment, he smiled; happy that she was happy to see such a room that could even exist only in fairytale stories.

"Haruhi, I show you this room, only to you, and you only. Because…" He trailed off; staring at the huge room they were in, lost in his thoughts. He didn't know what to tell her. What if she rejected him like before?

"Because what, Tamaki?" He heard her ask in a small voice and he stared down at her, his serious eyes meeting her inquisitive brown ones. He would tell her… He should…

"Because you're as precious to me as my mother, Haruhi. I cherish you that much, maybe even more." He continued staring into her eyes, not willing himself to look away. He'd done this many, many times with all his customers, why? Why is it, that when it came to Fujioka Haruhi, he was starting to feel the shyness creep up to him?

She blinked at him slowly, "Y-you… what? Sorry, I don't understand."

And she had to just ruin the moment. Of course, she was _the_ legendary Fujioka-kun, the one who unknowingly breaks and shatters every boy's heart. He sighed, a little frustrated and held her shoulders with both his hands, staring really hard into her eyes, 'If words couldn't get to her, would actions be suffice?'

He felt himself on the brink of desperation, yet, he sighed again. He'd try once more using words, "Haruhi, the truth is, I like you so, so much. Not the way friends would like each other. The way how your dad would've liked your mom, do you understand? I am in love with you. Can you understand that?"

She blinked a few more times, looking at him silently. He could practically hear her brain's clockwork chugging overtime, but he didn't care. If he was dense, she was much denser, that much he knew from eavesdropping over Honey-senpai's and Mori-senpai's conversation while pretending to nap in the room once. They'd been early and while they thought he was napping, no one else was around to listen in on them.

He tried again, looking at her almost pleadingly, "Haruhi, the reason why I brought you here, is because… the only person I'd bring here would be my mother. While I've nearly lost all hope trying to find her, I promised myself that I'd bring only one other person here to share it with her. And that was you, Haruhi. I wanted to share this only with you. No one else besides the gardener is allowed in here. Do you understand the gravity of that?"

'How is it that she's still so silent?' His mind asked almost deliriously as he clutched onto her shoulders a little more tightly. He watched as she smiled a little then chuckled at him; That, he didn't understand one bit. Why and what was she laughing at? Did he look that stupid to her? Did his words sound stupid? They should, because he didn't really think of what to say to her, those words were true, right from his heart. Did she find his words stupid? Maybe he wasn't serious enough… maybe he was too flustered up already, he should've just taken it slowly and be at ease with himself, not rush into it… maybe she just didn't like him at all. What if, maybe she liked someone else in the host club already? Maybe they're already together without his knowing! He frantically searched through his mind of his rivals and could only think of Hikaru being the most prominent one. Was it Hikaru? It couldn't be him, he was still stuck with Kaoru… he still wouldn't let go of Hikaru, he was so sure of it.

As his mind chugged out all the possibilities and asked a billion questions, he didn't realise that Haruhi had pulled him over to the metal swing where it was the only place to sit, and it was right in the middle of the room. He didn't realise as she made him sit down, and she followed suit and sat down next to him, her hand still in his. He didn't realise that she was still smiling, a little warmer than her usual, her cheeks tinged in a light pink blush. He didn't even realise when his head was pulled down gently, and her warm breath, light on his cheek.

He didn't realise anything at all, until her lips met his.

He felt her smile against his own, as their lips brushed against each other effortlessly, daring to see who would make the first move. He smiled to himself, and held her face in his hand and felt her lean into his touch. 'Words weren't needed after all…' He thought giddily and leaned in to kiss her.

* * *

Haruhi opened her eyes slowly as the kiss ended, it was so sweet and chaste, but it was somewhat fiery too. It was like a fairytale thing. A storybook fairytale, in the midst of a secret indoor garden, too perfect to be true…

"Of course I understand, Tamaki…" She stared back into his intense violet eyes, 'His eyes look so serious now… So beautiful…' She mused vaguely, but could she afford this? This relationship with him? Would Kyoya-senpai be angry with her? She would be done with her debt by tomorrow, unless by some crazy miracle, two other girls decide to designate her today… What about the future of the club?

"Of course I understand." She said softly, almost heartbreakingly. She felt his body stiffened up as his eyes widened at the understanding of the tone of her voice.

"But… why?" She heard him ask her equally breathlessly as she said it, only his was laced with shock and impending dread.

"Because Tamaki… Kyoya wouldn't be pleased about it." Oh, how she hated to ruin the moment. She lowered her gaze to her hands, now folded neatly on her lap. She heard him sigh and felt like sighing with him too. 'I have an urban fairytale to live. I have an urban fairytale to live. If this comes in, I don't think I can see my urban fairytale surfacing…' She suddenly thought, reminded by her mental list of life goals.

"And…?" He asked, almost as if reading her mind. She drew in a breath as if she was about to drop an atomic bomb shell on him.

"And because, I have things… Dreams that I want fulfilled even before everything else… That's why I can't, Tamaki." Haruhi looked up at him, surprised that her eyes were welling up at the sight of his despaired look. She sat still as he reached out to wiped her tears that were now trailing down her cheeks.

"Then I will help you fulfil them, Haruhi. I want to help you fulfil those dreams, and we can be together." She watched blankly as his lips moved to form the words. She couldn't let him do that, he had a family business to run. She wanted to watch him outdo his grandmother's expectations, to take over the whole Suou Empire, to become the successful person he was to become. She shook her head, she wasn't about to bring him down.

"Not until you fulfil your own duties, Tamaki. You are heir to the Suou Empire." She whispered. If only they could be trapped in time like this forever.

* * *

He let out a frustrated growl, now she was really getting to him. 'God! How can this woman be so stubborn!' He gritted his teeth slightly in anger. 

"You don't get it do you, Haruhi? I don't want to become heir! I'd never gain my grandmother's approval, no matter what. Not since I ditched her latest attempt to get me to marry some girl from France." He got up and walked around the swing, fists clenched.

"All the more you ought to outdo your grandmother's expectations, Tamaki." That was the only reply he got out of her after leaning against the swing for a few minutes.

He sighed and walked back into the swing set, sitting across from her and pushing her chin up so that she would look straight into his eyes.

"That would mean marrying someone else. Do you want that to happen, Haruhi? Do you want to see me marry another girl?"

It was a frank question. One he knew that if he were to do this a month ago, he wouldn't even have the guts to think of asking her that question. But now, he was so sure. He wanted to know what she would say to that. 'Of course she'd say yes, it's expected of her to say that, it's obvious she doesn't want to hold you back.' A Kyoya-like voice pierced through the many voices in his mind.

Shaking his head, he closed his eyes briefly, "Screw that, Haruhi. **I** don't want that to happen. Why did you even kiss me in the first place then? Obviously I meant something to you if you do that..."

Couldn't she see that he was practically baring his all for her to see right now? Why did she have to do something like that to him?

He leaned back into the swing, causing it to swing back and forth slightly, his eyes roaming around the room. He heard her choke out a sob and sat back up to see how she was doing. His eyes softened as she sobbed into her hands, he didn't plan on making her cry like that. 'Maybe it was a really bad time to be doing this at all…' he thought tiredly.

"You know what…?" he spoke out loud. It was merely above a whisper, but he sounded like his voice was booming over a microphone. "Let's just forget about this… it's obviously a really bad time for me to come at you like that…" He stood up and got out of the swing gracefully, placing a hand on her shoulder, only to have her look up at him with her red-rimmed eyes and her wrapping her arms around him tightly, sobbing out a quiet but forceful "No" into his chest.

He stood there and wrapped his arms around her, ideas of hosting the thirty girls back in his dining hall a long forgotten thought.

He smiled.

At least, he'd won her heart over.

He'd won.

* * *

**okay, you know what? I so give up trying to get the html codes to stay. They just DON'T stay on. like, grrr!**


	8. Tamaki's Business Proposition

**Konnichiwa, minna! Heh.  
So. I gave up on the html codings. Bleah. YES! I hate that sleazy Éclair. Like, who would call their daughter after a chocolate snack! My god. I so hate that Éclair, gah. I so hate BONES for even going ahead with the idea of having Éclair! Poor Haruhi! That's why, I wanted a romantic ending fit only for our heroine! Screw that Éclair, Fujioka Haruhi rules my socks!**

**Anyway, one more chapter :sob: Yes, I feel the ache in ending the story, but what the heck, the faster I end this story, the faster I get to write a new fanfiction in which it depicts Éclair being sorrowfully dumped by Tamaki. Sounds good, no:evil laugh: **

**By the way, I got an A on my final year project, like, yay! Mega mega-watt grin**

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* * *

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**Tamaki's Business Proposition.**

Haruhi didn't want it to be that way, hell no. It was the exact opposite. She thought that this moment would've come at least when it was the last day of school for him, Tamaki, that is. She thought if he didn't try the last day before he left school, there'd still be her graduation when he'd have to turn up, since he was the superintendent's son after all. He was obliged to be there.

Not in her wildest dreams, did she expect him to drag her to this hidden alcove in the very depth of his home, this secret garden, only to tell her that he had feelings for her. Really strong feelings, in fact. 'Not in my wildest dreams, eh?' She thought blankly as she stood there, wondering idly how she ended up hugging him. Was it raining? She listened for a while; face still buried in his shirt. No, no sounds of thunder or rain; just the water bubbling from the fountain a few feet away.

Why'd she run to him when he'd so quietly say that they should forget about this incident? It was such a sweet memory to remember, why did he want them both to forget it? This beautiful alcove, the kiss, those feelings… They were so real to her. Was that what it was to feel when one was to be romanced?

Then she remembered herself telling him, "No". No, she didn't want to forget about it. And they stood there for quite a long while, in each other's embrace. She felt his arms closing in on her, gently but protectively, even more so, lovingly. 'I like that feeling…' she thought to herself, amusedly.

She wondered if she ought to start panicking now, because even all that her brain's been telling her not to get involved in a relationship now, she still went ahead with it anyway. She still had her urban fairytale to fulfil. And she still wanted to see that Tamaki took his rightful place in the Suou family business.

She entangled herself from him and looked up at him. He stood there smiling softly down at her, and in the hot afternoon rays of sunlight basking in on them, he looked almost heavenly. She regarded him, eyes feeling a little sore from crying at the overwhelming range of emotions that surged through her minutes before.

His stomach rumbled.

Haruhi couldn't help but grin and chuckle at him as he blushed sheepishly as he retorted meekly, "I'm really hungry…"

They started walking towards the door and she stretched, yawning tiredly as he held the door open for her, "You know what, Tamaki?" She threw him a glance as they made their way towards the dining room.

"What is it?"

"I still have my urban fairytale to fulfil. And part of it is to see that you take your place in the Suou family business." There, she said it.

She craned her neck to the sides only to have it creak as the tension in her neck got released. Haruhi let out a sigh and looked at him. He was still looking straight forward, eyes set on the ground before him. She tugged at his shirt, making him look at her, clear eyes locking at each other.

She offered him a smile, "We'll just have to find a way, alright?"

He frowned thoughtfully at her, what if he really didn't feel like taking over the current Suou Empire? There would be another way, of course. It was so simple! A smile crept up his face as he hooked her around her neck, laughing as his mind whirled busily and as she struggled against him, demanding that he let her go in that instant.

Letting her go, he bent down and smiled his usual friendly smile at her, "Haruhi, you just gave me the best idea yet!"

He started walking again, but not before he caught her confused look on her face. He gave her a swift kiss on her lips, causing her to blush slightly as he chuckled.

"Wh-what idea?" she asked as she jogged to catch up with him.

"You know how I can't exactly inherit the business, since grandmother virtually hates my guts, right?" He slowed down so that they were both walking briskly now. The dining hall seems like a very faraway place from where they were. He glanced at his shorter companion to see that she was nodding at him to go on with his idea.

"Well, I'll just set up my own Empire and buy it down then!" He concluded, smiling at his genius idea. It'd be a difficult thing to do, but he was sure his father wouldn't mind it one bit. In fact, his father would welcome it! Just so that in case he couldn't inherit the business, his father could just sell it to him. It was so simple. So simple an idea, he berated himself for not thinking about it any earlier.

He chuckled at himself and checked on Haruhi, who was now panting slightly from their fast paced walk. She smiled questioningly at him, "That sounds difficult, you know?"

He nodded, "I know, but it's not a task that I cannot do. We'll figure it out somehow." He slowed down a little more; they couldn't just burst into the dining hall all panting like they'd just raced each other down the corridor.

"And while we're at it, we'll fulfil your urban fairytale too." He smiled down at her, obviously catching her off guard. He knew somehow she was relieved that he didn't talk about her 'urban fairytale', but he wasn't about to let it go that easily. He wanted to know about this urban fairytale of hers. He supposed it was something to do with following in her late mother's legacy in becoming the next top lawyer in the industry.

"But we'll talk about that later." He stopped at the door to the dining hall, glancing down at her while arranging his clothes back properly, "Ready?" He got a nod from her as she rearranged her hair so that it covered over her eyes.

Tamaki gave her a wink as he pushed the doors open, immediately transforming himself back into his role as the flamboyant and flirtatious prince and king of the host club. Haruhi walked in, smiling as she made her way back to her customers, but not before grabbing a flute of sparkling water along the way.

She caught curious looks from the twins, but she just shrugged and mouthed to them that she was fine. She was sure she saw Hikaru turn an angry shade of pink when he caught sight of her still red-rimmed eyes. She gave Kaoru a pleading look as he nodded an affirmative to keep his twin away from her for the while. She smiled back at them and sat down in between her customers, asking if they were enjoying their meal, exhaustion that was gnawing at her bones only seconds ago, now gone.

* * *

The day ended with the girls sighing happily, some tearing up at the thought of not seeing the host club till the week after the exams (which was three weeks after golden week ended). The Host Club stood outside the Suou villa, under the sheltered porch, sending the girls off in their various limousines, waving them off, each with a rose in hand, and a cheerful bid goodnight.

As the last of the girls got into her limousine with two of her friends, the butler closing the door gently after them and Haruhi gave a little bow, bidding the girls goodnight. She was about to turn around when she found a pair of hands surrounding her.

"Haruhi, we've heard from Kyoya-senpai. Will you leave us after you finish the two customers tomorrow?" Kaoru was the first to pipe up from her left.

"Yeah, are you going to abandon us and never come back?" Hikaru asked, teeth gritted in his own frustration at the thought of Haruhi not staying with them for Host Club activities.

She looked at them, confused, "What difference would it make to the two of you? We're still in the same class, aren't we?"

The twins grinned, laughing at her frank answer, prancing about her in their mini-celebration dance, "Yay! Haruhi's staying!"

She frowned, protesting, "Hey! I never said that!"

The twins stopped in mid-step and faced her, "Why not?"

"Well, I've not thought about it yet…" She shrugged and looked over at where the two best friends were standing, Kyoya on his phone with someone in deep conversation. He looked over at her and gave her a slight nod; and Tamaki was staring out into the night sky, oblivious that she was looking in his direction.

"Besides, I'm sure there's more than enough time to think it through what with the examinations coming up. You two ought to stop fooling around and start studying… Honestly. It's only three days to our first paper and we're still stuck in Hokkaido. Thank goodness I brought over the notes and books needed for the first four papers." She turned back and studied the twins who were now feigning sleep by the fountain just beyond the porch. Sighing at the two brothers, she walked back into the building.

"Senpai? Shall we go in? I want to go back to my room and start studying." She regarded the cousins as the doors opened up for her. Not waiting for them to reply, she raised her voice a little louder.

"Hikaru, Kaoru! Get in here, or do you want to fail and go to class D next year? If you fail, we won't be in the same class…" She heard the boys shuffle in behind her, grumbling over how she was sometimes worse than their in-house educators. She hid a smile to herself as a maid announced that she would guide her back to her room.

She heard all of them strolling in behind her, the twins still grumbling, Honey-senpai discussing what to study later with his cousin, Kyoya still on the phone, and Tamaki now humming an unknown tune to her. Would she want to leave them just like that? She didn't exactly want to join this club in the first place, she did break some girl's vase that was supposed to be the feature of the charity auction the Club was supposed to host. But over time, she grew to understand and love all of them equally. They were the only friends she ever had in school. Not that whenever she needed them, they'd be there. They were a nuisance, sure, but it was weird on a school day if neither one of them rang her up for lunch or for a quick club meeting at the music room. Would she be able to handle the sudden change of her after-school schedule?

She shrugged mentally, stifling a yawn as the maid stopped at her door, bowing to her and announcing that they'd reached her room. Another maid opened the door for her and waited for her to step in. The cousins had already reached their rooms a few minutes ago, so all was left was Kyoya-senpai, who was now thankfully off his phone, but scribbling in a small notebook that he'd taken out from his shirt pocket; Tamaki and the twins. Pausing as the twins passed by her room noisily, she tilted her head, "You guys want to study with me later?"

It was a question she wouldn't have asked on any given day, but she felt that she'd need some company in this huge room tonight. She could discuss economics with the twins, probably get help from Kyoya or Honey-senpai on it. She didn't know what to discuss with Tamaki, 'Probably World History…' But she didn't know how exactly sure she was of herself to even speak to the guy now. Whatever happened between them in the indoor garden would probably stay in between them, but it was awkward. They did share a kiss with each other, after all. She stopped all her mind from wandering into the details of it. It made her heart pump a little faster and her palms a little sweatier.

She mutely heard the four of them agreeing to meet in her room in an hour's time. That would give her some time to study by herself… Turning to the patient maid waiting by her door, she let out a sigh, thanking her, "Could you please tell Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai to meet at my room in an hour's time too?" She thanked the maid again, who bowed gracefully and acknowledged her request before bidding her a goodnight's rest as well as a happy time studying.

* * *

It wasn't till forty minutes in the one hour time frame when someone started knocking on Haruhi's door. She'd already showered and changed into some clothes her father had packed into her luggage for her. Trust the old man to do frivolous things like repacking his own daughters undergarments and clothes. She was about to launch into reading the second chapter of her chemistry notes when the door knocked.

"Coming!"

Perhaps the person thought she said, "Come in!" because two seconds later, Tamaki's head popped out from behind the door as she was walking towards the door. He grinned as he let himself in, closing the door behind him softly, in his arms were several books, a writing pad and a small pencil case.

"Sorry I'm a bit early. But I got frustrated deciding what to study later. Kyoya just told me to take the first two subjects that popped into my head and well, since there isn't anything to decide after that, I decided to come over instead. I wasn't sure if you were done showering yet…" He blushed sheepishly as she smiled at him and beckoned him over to the sitting area in the vast room he'd prepared for her. She'd been shocked when she'd been ushered to this room at first. It was larger than her home put together twice.

"We'll all study at the sitting area later… Could you turn up the lights here?" She picked up her chemistry notes and plopped back on the over-sized sofa. It was larger than the single-sized futon back in her room in Tokyo. She supposed she could give her dad a quick call while Tamaki and her waited for the rest to turn up. The lights gradually increased in their intensity and lit up the sitting area, and she found Tamaki lounging in the sofa across of her, his eyes staring up at the chandelier above them.

Whenever she knew he wasn't looking, she'd study him, just as she knew how he'd study her too. Now, she studied him openly, eyes observing how his hair looked so magnificent, covering his eyes some times when he lowered his head. Those perfectly shaped eyebrows that were perfect by its own, no plucking was needed. She mused lightly, wondering if he would even consider on having facials. His skin was so flawless and clear. And his eyes, oh, how his eyes always caught her in mid-thought, so intense and concentrated. If he was upset, it was cloudy; when he was exhilarated, they were vibrant and alive; when he brooded, they were intense and dark; and she remembered, the time when he announced his engagement to the French girl, Éclair, his eyes seemed less than alive. They looked hollow within the moment she looked at him. She felt angry that someone would make him feel so sad and forlorn.

She blinked when he sat up and was now looking at her, surprised that she was staring so intently at him, as if studying him. 'Now they're so intense and alive…' He smiled at her, walking over and picking up the chemistry notes in her hands and stood in front of her, reading through the notes. He sat on the carpeted floor next to the low coffee table, picking up her pencil and started scribbling in it.

"You left out quite a lot of things in here, Haruhi… No wonder you're third in class. Come here, let me tell you what to expect in the exams, alright?" He looked up her as he paused in his attempt to write in her notes, and watched her get up from the sofa to sit next to him, her eyes travelling from his face to the notes in his hands.

"I left out a lot of notes? How can that be? I followed sensei's hints…" She took the notes from him and started flipping through her notes, glancing through the notes he'd just scribbled on the side margins.

He chuckled, "Well, you can't beat me! I'm the top student in Ouran back last year! Sensei only gives enough to allow you to score an average B-grade. You do have enough to score an average A-grade, but if you want a distinction, study everything. Here, I remembered some questions, I'll write them at the back here and you can try to attempt them after wards…" He pried the notes out of her hold again and wrote in it quickly, his handwriting like a typed out cursive script.

A second knock came at her door and Haruhi turned to look at it. "Come on in!" she raised her voice a little, and the door opened a few seconds later, the third year seniors letting themselves in, Honey-senpai already in his pajamas and his usa-chan in hand, while Mori-senpai carried a whole stack of books closed the door behind them.

"Haru-chan! We got your message and came over! We've already studied, but I suppose Takashi and I could do a tiny bit of light reading tonight while you study! If you need any help, don't hesitate to ask us, alright?" Honey-senpai said, jumping on the over-sized sofa that Haruhi had been sprawled out on just minutes ago.

Mori-senpai lowered himself on to the same sofa and gently placed the books on the vast coffee table, offering Haruhi and Tamaki a smile. He was obviously tired, perhaps he'd end up snoozing on the sofa for a while, while the rest of them studied. "Mitsukuni, they can't study if you keep jumping around like that, right?" He grinned at his cousin, who smiled back at him in agreement and sat down next to him.

"Takashi, are you tired?" The tiny blonde chap asked, hugging on to his stuffed toy.

"I guess so…" Takashi answered, stifling a yawn, stretching out his arms.

"Well, go nap for a while then… Or you'll start being talkative like last time…" Mitsukuni ran over to Haruhi's bed and dragged out the comforter and went back to his cousin who was now stretched out on the sofa, trying to find a good spot to snooze at. He threw the comforter over him and gave usa-chan to his cousin, "See you in an hour!"

The tall, brooding boy grunted in response as he nodded off to sleep and Honey-senpai sat himself across from Tamaki and Haruhi, who were now staring at him wide-eyed, "Haru-chan, sorry to take your blanket like that, I hope you don't mind! Takashi needs to sleep for a while."

Haruhi merely nodded at him and gave him a smile while Tamaki shrugged and stood up, walking over to the study table Haruhi was using before he came in. He picked up another set of notes from the table and flipped through it. It was geography. He studied the notes, and took the other two neat stacks of notes that were placed at a corner on the table and went back to the sitting area. He sat next to Haruhi on the carpet again, still reading through the notes, a frown evident on his face.

"Well, are they up to top student standard then?" He heard Haruhi ask meekly and lowered the notes on to the table and realised that he was frowning.

Wiping off his serious look, he chuckled and offered her a reassuring smile, "These look alright. I suppose they could do with a little more notes, but those we can go through later with the twins…"

"Tama-chan, don't you have your notes to study too?" Honey-senpai piped up, flipping through his own set of notes idly.

"Oh, yes I do. But I'm waiting till Kyoya get here before I start on mine." Haruhi yawned as she watched the flamboyant boy flip through all her notes, as if a teacher marking his student's work.

The door opened this time, and the twins walked in, both chewing on chocolate bars, their books in their arms.

"You didn't even bother knocking first." Haruhi stated as she pointed to the floor next to Tamaki.

"Well, it's past the hour, so we figured you might be studying already…" Hikaru said offhandedly as he sat down next to her, ignoring her previous seating arrangement.

"I told him we should knock, but Kyoya-senpai agreed that there was no need to…" Kaoru continued apologetically, sitting himself next to Tamaki.

Haruhi looked up to find Kyoya taking his time in sitting at the sofa that Tamaki sat in earlier on. He gave her his usual nod and opened his file and laid it out on the table and setting the cup of coffee he'd brought along.

The twins were now noisily laying out their books next to her and she stole a glance at the sleeping boy on the sofa behind her.

"Shhh…!" She put her finger on her lips, glaring at the boys. They stared up at her, wondering why she did that for.

"Mori-senpai's sleeping, don't be so noisy, understand?" She made a zipping motion across her lips, "Zip it."

She held up her chemistry notes to the twins who were now frantically looking for their own, "And study. I'm going to start with chemistry first."

"Haruhi, here you go. This should be it." Tamaki put down her mechanical pencil and handed her the other three set of notes, "If you have any questions, just ask alright?" He stood up and moved over to where Kyoya sat, not waiting for her to reply, just offering only a small smile after she nodded at him.

Haruhi watched as Hikaru snatched the notes from her and started to flip through them, eyes widening at the amount of extra notes their 'king' just added in to her stack of papers.

"How come you help her and not us?" Kaoru asked, turning over to poke Tamaki in his sides. Tamaki had just climbed across the sofa to sit at Kaoru's other side, in between the twin and his best mate.

Tamaki laughed, "Well, Haruhi can teach you two later. I figured she'd be able to explain it better to you guys anyway…" He waved off the twin as he opened his textbook and picked up his beary mechanical pencil, flipping through his writing pad to a new page. It was filled with all sorts of notes incomprehensible to anyone else reading it.

Kaoru shrugged as he moved over closer to Haruhi and Hikaru, picking up the set of geography notes to study, his eyes widening too, at Tamaki's vast knowledge and memory power.

* * *

The night wore on as Mori-senpai woke up from his nap, and as Kyoya bid good night to the rest of them, excusing himself from the group saying he was feeling tired and needed the rest for the final day of Hosting. It wore on as the cousins aided the three freshmen in their Mathematics and economics, and later on, they excused themselves too, what with Honey-senpai saying he needed to go to the kitchen for some cake and Mori-senpai following him to get some water.

The night wore on more (okay, it was four hours after they'd started studying) as the twins gave up studying and Haruhi shooed them back to their room after she caught them dozing off, totally exhausted from the day's activities.

Soon, she found herself once again, alone with the one person she dreaded, yet yearned desperately to be with. Tamaki seemed to hold on longer than the rest of them, he was into his forth subject when he put his pencil down once more, and was surprised to realise that he was the only one remaining in the room with Haruhi.

He looked around and found the girl once again sitting on the sofa which Mori-senpai was napping in earlier on – he'd put the comforter back and even tucked it in neatly into the bed's sides – her notes in her lap, her eyes hidden by her glasses. He cleared his throat slightly to get her attention and smiled when she looked up at him.

"I think I shall go now too… Since everyone's gone… I should get back to my room." Tamaki started gathering his books, closing the opened textbooks, not before he stuck an adhesive book tab onto the page.

"It's okay. You can continue studying here if you want… I don't mind." She said distractedly as she flipped to the next page.

He stopped pasting the tabs into his book and looked at her; she was still reading her notes, her stance so serious, 'yet so feminine…' He thought absentmindedly as he stood up and stretched, causing his muscles to pull delightfully. Just then the mobile phone on the coffee table rang. It was close to midnight, yet who could be calling him?

"Oh, must be father…" He excused himself as he picked up his phone to answer the call, walking towards the window, careful not to disturb Haruhi as she merely nodded, still studying her notes with a determined fervour.

"Suou Tamaki speaking." He looked out into the night sky, seating himself comfortably in the window seat.

"Son, how about a midnight chat at the library?" A deep voice sounded over the phone, not bothering to introduce himself over the phone.

Oh, speak of the devil. Didn't his father realise he wasn't back in Tokyo?

"Dad, I'm in Hokkaido, remember?"

"I know. Which is why I'm in the library in the villa in Hokkaido too. Unless you built another villa without my knowing?" His father's voice now chuckling and Tamaki rolled his eyes.

"Alright then, old man. But in an hour's time. I'm still studying with Haruhi." He replied calmly. The next thing he figured the old geezer to suggest was to bring Haruhi along, either that, or he'd go down to her room to meet them himself.

True to his words, "Really? Well, that's just splendid! Bring her along then! Better yet, stay there, I'll be along soon. I'll just get the butler to send for some tea and some desserts to the room!" There was a pause, almost as if Tamaki could hear his father's brain gears chugging along.

"In whose room; by the way?"

Tamaki looked back at the sitting area, "Haruhi's. She invited us over to study with her earlier this evening after making sure the girls went back to their hotels and residences." He said quickly, not giving his father a chance to call him a sleazy wolf for being in the room alone with a girl.

He heard the old man chuckle over the phone, "Whatever you say, son. I will be over in ten minutes." The phone clicked and the conversation ended.

Standing up again, he stalked over to the sitting area and sat down heavily next to Haruhi and heaved out a loud sigh.

"What is it, Tamaki?" She asked him, looking at him as she flipped through a few more pages of her newly updated notes.

"My father's coming over to your room for a while, said something about a midnight chat… I hope you don't mind. I tried to tell him I'd meet him in the library but he insisted on coming over here instead." He explained as he propped his feet on the table. Normally, she'd have frowned and tell him to put his legs down from the table, but since it was his home, Haruhi just shrugged the irritation off.

"Okay." She replied, placing her notes on the side table next to her and started on her economics for the fifth time that night.

A soft knock sounded on the door and it opened to reveal two maids, one holding the door open while the other pushed in a trolley that carried a tray of desserts and pot of steaming hot tea. Haruhi looked at the boy next to her as he shrugged, "Father's idea, not mine."

As the maids went about setting up the coffee table with the dessert utensils and laid out the dishes of small cakes and delicacies, the door opened once more, this time, Suou Yuzuru stepped in, smiling at the two teenagers sitting together at the sofa.

* * *

"Tamaki, legs off the table. It's disgusting." That was the first thing that came out of the older man's lips as he approached them, his attire casual. A vast difference from his usual business suits that Haruhi and Tamaki usually seen him in. Sure, he was still in his leather shoes, and business pants, but tonight, he wore a collared T-shirt, and he still looked regal in them.

Tamaki blushed apologetically as he stood up, bowing respectfully to his father. Haruhi started to get up to follow in the older boy's stead, but the older Suou raised a hand to indicate she needn't stand up to greet him, instead he went over to her and in pure western influence, he took her hand and gave it a kiss; obviously much to Tamaki's displeasure as he told his father off rather curtly in gritted teeth not to touch his Haruhi.

Haruhi raised an eyebrow at Tamaki, and he looked away, his face a beet red. The head of the Suou enterprise looked at his son and dropped Haruhi's hand lightly, letting out a laugh, as if mocking his son and moved over to sit himself at the sofa across from the one the two teens were sitting at just seconds ago. He gave a nod and a soft word of thanks as the maid passed him a cup of tea, and had already prepared a small slice of cake on a small plate, placed in front of him. He dismissed the two maids with a wave of a hand as they bowed their way out, excusing themselves politely from the group, closing the door with an inaudible click.

"So, Haruhi. Do you like my home?" The lone adult asked as he sipped on his tea.

"It's huge."

"Huge? That's it? Not, 'it's pretty!' or, 'I love it! The details are so intricate!' Just huge?" He eyed the young girl seated across from him.

"Um… It's very huge. Well, it's nice I guess. I like this room. It's huge." Haruhi replied, not sure how she actually felt about the villa. It was after all, like what she'd described: Huge. She looked straight back into the superintendent's eyes and he smiled at her.

"Don't you have any letters for me, young lady? I am, after all… Your benefactor, Uncle 'Long legs'", referring to the novel that they'd talked about previously back in school.

Haruhi smiled weakly and sneaked a glance at Tamaki, who was now blatantly ignoring them by sipping on his tea. She realised he was probably listening intently on every word that passed between his father and his 'one true love'.

"Well… I do have some, but they're back at home; in Tokyo." She looked at her benefactor, who was now in the midst of his melodramatic mood, a tad similar to Tamaki's own.

"Ah! The commoner beneficiary of mine has indeed written to me! Oh, how touched thy soul feels!" The grown man said; standing up and like his son, let forth a whole string of flattering commodities and flowery gestures, posing in many poses just like how his son would.

Haruhi looked at Tamaki this time, and saw him staring at his father in amusement. 'That's where he gets all his flattering words from then… learning from his one and only teacher, his father.' She mused as she walked over to the mini kitchen and poured herself a cup of water.

Tamaki's father stopped half way when he heard his son applauding him and he gave a bow, only to find that Haruhi was busy at the kitchen counter. She watched at the corner of her eyes as he wailed out to his only son about being ignored by the lovely damsel and proceeded in sitting in an armchair by the corner of the room. 'Now I know where Tamaki gets that from…' She would've sweat-dropped but she wasn't exactly being in a variety show at that point of time.

Not wanting to offend her one and only benefactor, she walked over to the superintendent, "Um… sorry Mr Suou… I mean, I was a bit touched by your words, really I was, but I needed to get a cup of water… I don't drink tea at night…"

Almost immediately, he got up, smiling and vibrant. 'Tamaki really perfected his father's unique art of egotism.' She couldn't help but muse on that as she went back to sit at the sofa, returning a smile to the older man.

"Alright Father. What was it that you wanted to discuss with me? It couldn't be to just talk to Haruhi, right?" Tamaki finally said, breaking his father's illustrious ramblings.

The older man stopped in mid-sentence and regarded his son, gave a cough, just to save himself whatever dignity he could save, shy from being embarrassed in front of his son, and his young female beneficiary, whom both now looked like they couldn't care less if he was doing a monologue about rubber ducks in only his boxers.

"Right." He sat back down and looked at his son, the aura around him turning serious once more.

"Haruhi, I hope you don't find us boring. It gets a little technical and complicated along the way, but what I'm about to say now…" He regarded the young girl carefully, "mustn't leave this room. Do you understand?"

* * *

Haruhi could only nod. What other choice did she have in the matter anyway? She watched as Tamaki's father picked up his tea cup and took a long draught from it, obviously thirsty from his ten-minute ramble. She picked up the tea pot by habit and poured him another cup the moment he set it down, earning her a cheerful smile and an equally cheerful thanks from the man.

Tamaki cleared his throat and both of them turned to look at him, one in curiosity, the other in slight annoyance.

"Tamaki, I will make it really short and sweet this time round. Your grandmother hates you sincerely and –" Tamaki scoffed at this, which earned him a glare from the older man, who merely paused and continued, "wants to make sure that you do not inherit the Suou Empire."

Tamaki picked out a mini éclair from the many snacks displayed in front of them and popped it into his mouth, "Well, I thought she hated anything that wasn't of pure Japanese blood. Why make me marry a French girl previously? It's a bit contradicting, don't you think? IF we ended up having an offspring, the child would be of mixed heritage!"

Before his father could reply, he continued off-handedly, "Or did she forget that while I'm half-French, and half-Japanese, I'm still both of royal blood? Mother was an aristocrat back in France. She was the immediate cousin to the Crown Prince of France. Did grandmother some how selectively forget about that tiny fact? Did she stupidly not realise that Éclair isn't of royal birth in any sense?"

"Tamaki, you will not talk about your grandmother in that manner!" Haruhi couldn't help but blurt out angrily, immediately gasping in shock at her blunt remark, which caused the older Suou to chuckle. Both teens stared at him, confused.

"She says it like she's said that all her life!" Suou Yuzuru mused out loud, still chuckling at her before he looked at his son again, smiling, "But let me assure you, son… Your grandmother does know that. She never fails to remind me everyday how thankful you ought to be that of all the women I had to fall in love with; she had to be one of royalty."

Tamaki was about retort back at his father, but the older man merely held a gaze on his son, making sure he understood not to utter a word while he made his statement clear, "You are correct in saying that Éclair's heritage isn't one bit included in the royal blood of France. However, Éclair's family was virtually buying down every electronic firm in Japan. It was something your grandmother could not afford to see happening while she's alive. If you do not marry that girl, you might very well see the whole of Suou Enterprise being bought down by them in time to come."

Tamaki blinked slowly at his father, absorbing in his words carefully. He looked at Haruhi, wondering if he ought to tell his father of his plans, the crazy idea that he'd thought of several hours ago, when he was walking back to the dining hall with Haruhi after their shared moment in the secret garden. He saw her give him a small nod, her anger at him faded, as if telling him that he ought to speak of the exact same idea, and he gave her a small smile, nodding back at her before returning his father's gaze in equal intensity.

"Then I have a proposition for you."

* * *

The night wore on as Tamaki laid out his plan to his father in words. From what seemed like a few simple words many hours ago, Haruhi was amazed at how well thought out Tamaki was as he discussed about how he would begin to set up a small-scale empire on his own. It was as if within those few seconds of realisation back then, he'd spawned the idea out over the past few hours, and now he was telling his father and her, how his small-scale empire could virtually buy down any large-scale empire in the span of five years.

And in those five years, he could buy down his father's enterprise, indirectly leading him to his inheritance. In eight years, he would buy over other industries like the Ootori's family business in health care and security. In twelve, he would have a major hold in the Hitachiin's, and in fifteen years, he would probably have the Haninozuka's and Morinozuka's working for him faithfully.

She watched in amazement as the older Suou nodded in agreement at every word his son said, and in further amusement as she watched the younger Suou describing every little detail. It was as if he already had the Empire built in his mind.

"Of course, I want to do this only with Haruhi." Tamaki ended, smiling at his father. Haruhi frowned at his ending statement.

"I seriously object that." She retorted promptly.

"Why not?"

"Because I said so!"

"But…"

"No buts!"

"Am I that repulsive?"

"When I think about it deeply and thoroughly, yes. You can be quite repulsive."

"Haruhi!"

The superintendent laughed heartily as the two teenagers bickered with each other; his son now growing mushrooms at one end of the sofa, and Haruhi taking off her glasses to clean the lenses.

"Do whatever you want, son." He smiled, sipping on his tea once more, "It sounds like a good game plan. I will provide you with the capital to start up this small empire of yours."

He watched as his son got out of his mushroom-growing mood, and smiled again as his only son nodded at him in all seriousness, "I await the day when I sell you the Suou Empire. Perhaps, when your grandmother finds out how successful you are with your mini empire, she'd relent and allow you to inherit our family's business after all."

He winked and stood up, satisfied that his son was now ready to tackle the business world. He'd done checks on his son's progress and found him adapting to his new job scopes very well.

"And as for you, my young lady…" He regarded the girl before him, "Continue writing those letters, and don't detest my son that much… I'm sure he isn't that bad, right? He is my son, after all…" He ruffled her hair affectionately as her face flushed, promising to send him the letters that were still kept back in her home.

He turned to his son, the vibe around him no longer serious, "Well, Tama-kun..." Addressing him affectionately, "Have a good night's rest then. I enjoyed our chat tonight. You've excelled my expectations this one round. Continue to do so."

He waited as his son bowed to him slightly, wishing him a good night's rest in return, and he exited the room to leave the two kids to bicker over each other. Their words reminded him over his childhood friend, Ryoji. He knew Haruhi was his daughter, and he'd sorely missed his late hard-headed wife, Kotoko. Watching his son bicker with Haruhi; was like watching how Ryoji and Kotoko used to bicker too. Only this time, he hoped Haruhi wouldn't end up with a fate as sad as her mother's.

He vowed no matter what, he wouldn't disown Tamaki. He would accept his son's decision no matter what his own mother may say.

'Heaven bless the old woman.' He thought, whistling the same unknown tune Tamaki had been whistling some time ago as he walked down the quiet corridor, and out to the main entrance.

Midnight chats with his little Tamaki had always been fun.

* * *

**So, like. Mwhahahaha! I dissed Éclair! Love me, people! Love me! **


	9. Haruhi's Decision

**Oh, you lucky readers! I managed to get it done today... saves you a day of waiting, I suppose.. **

**あンヶりね – ****that's how this little Japanese boy wrote my name in his native language back when I was 15, and I was told to bring him around school on an exchange trip. (: The little tyke wrote my name out literally during the calligraphy session. Ah-n-ga-rine. Heh. It was funny. I should've just given him my Chinese name to work on. I think he'd have a better time. **

**He was the cutest kid amongst the lot. Comes up to me and goes, "Ah-n-ji-onee-san!" and continues with a whole string of Japanese that I cannot simply comprehend. **

**I still keep the piece of paper as rememberance. I can't seem to remember his name though. :grimace:**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

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* * *

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**Haruhi's Decision**

The trip to Hokkaido ended with some what of a happy end, if that's how Hikaru could put it. Haruhi wasn't exactly mixing around much with him and his twin lately. But Hikaru shrugged it off, perhaps she was just anxious to get home to study some more. Tamaki-senpai had given them extra notes to study that night, and he'd have to agree with his younger brother when they were discussing about it that same night, as they were walking back to their room… Tamaki-senpai was one brilliant mind no matter how much of a goof ball he was. But all the same, the trip ended happily, Tamaki-senpai sending them home in his limousine, they'd dropped Haruhi off first, of course. She'd stood at her condominium entrance, waving and smiling as the car moved off, but not before telling them (meaning him and Kaoru) sternly not to slack off and study when they got home. Of course, they replied nonchalantly that they'd _try_ to study. Tamaki-senpai merely smiled and waved at her through the window, but with his usual excitable manner.

It was like Kaoru would put it, their lord was just putting up a show for them: To yell at them, with all the elaborate, exaggerating gestures and poses; just to feed their boredom. But recently, they'd told the tall blonde senpai that they were tired of that already, and that he should just save it for the girls. And since he re-entered the Host Club, he should be a little more mature. He'd taken their words seriously, and whenever they'd purposely tried to flirt dangerously with Haruhi, they'd sneak glances at their senpai, only to find him looking through reports with Kyoya, not one least bothered by their crazy intimate act. It was getting seriously boring.

Hikaru wondered if something would happen soon, he wouldn't admit it to his brother, but he felt as if it were the calm before a fearful storm, or as if they were in the eye of a hurricane. Everything was just okay, a vital hype being died down some what.

"You must be thinking too much, Hikaru…" Hikaru sat up as his younger brother ruffled his hair affectionately, smiling down at him. Kaoru had just stepped out of the shower, dressed only in his boxers, towelling his hair dry.

Much to everyone's disappointment, the twins weren't exactly incestuous to the girls' expectations. Ever since Kaoru realised his older twin's growing feelings of the 'outside world', he decided he ought to follow suit and try to discover everything that didn't revolve around them as well.

"What do you mean?" Kaoru watch as his brother managed to sputter out the words and chuckled.

"You seem like you were in some far off land." He sat down on the edge of the bed next, "Thinking about why it's been so quiet with the club?"

Hikaru looked up sharply at his younger brother, how could he know? Sure, they were close, most of the time finishing off each other's sentences almost most eerily… but for him to actually know what he was thinking even without speaking it out loud…

"How did you know?" He asked, staring at Kaoru.

"You were staring at the club picture… Of course." Kaoru replied simply, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Besides, that was the exact same thing I was thinking of too… This year, Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai would leave school, since they're graduating… And Haurhi might not want to continue with the club… Maybe Kyoya-senpai might ask Kasanoda-kun to join us. Things would be fun if Kasanoda-kun joins us. We'd have a new toy!"

Hikaru smiled at his brother, he always seemed to be the outgoing type sometimes, even though it was Kaoru who was the more sensitive out of the both of them, "Yeah, perhaps… But, Haruhi's been sticking quite close to milord, don't you think?"

He unconsciously gripped onto the comforters around him tightly and heard his younger brother sigh tiredly, the bed springs creaking as he made to stand up.

"Hikaru, that's because it's obvious…" Kaoru paused, lifting his twin's chin up to hold a dead-serious gaze with him, "So obvious that Tamaki-senpai has made his move."

Hikaru's eyes widened at his twin's comment, his brain cells desperately trying to absorb his words, "B-but how sure? You didn't even see…"

"Tamaki-senpai told me himself. Told me when we were out at the balcony while you went in to get some drinks for us. He told me not to tell you, but I guess that's inevitable…" Kaoru stated offhandedly, walking over to their vast wardrobe to pick out a school shirt to wear. Exams had started and their paper today wouldn't start till noon, so they weren't expected to be in school till an hour before the test started. It was only ten.

"How can you be so relaxed? Kaoru… you knew! Yet you didn't say a word to me!" Kaoru heard his older brother fumble around the bed, trying to entangle himself out from the bedspreads and comforters to make his way towards him. Turning to his brother, he slung on his shirt, "Well, you're the one in love with Haruhi. I'm not."

He watched as the older of the two stopped in his march across the room and slouched, "Oh yeah. You're right on that one."

Hikaru looked at his brother, and the two exchanged identical smirks as they started chuckling at Hikaru's slow realisation. Kaoru pulled out a pair of pants and wore them over his boxers, "Well, what are you going to do about it then, onii-san?"

Hikaru shrugged, not knowing how to answer the dressed boy as he pulled out a towel and stepped into the bathroom, "Not sure."

Kaoru shrugged back, "It's your call then, Hikaru." He watched the back of his brother's head as he waved him off, closing the bathroom door behind him. He made to put on his belt, before slinging out his tie and asked through the intercom for the twin maids to bring the blazers into the room. This was Hikaru's own battle. He would help should his brother ask for it, but this time, he'd leave the thinking for later; grabbing the notes on the table, he banged on the bathroom door, "Hikaru, you'd better hurry or we'll be late! We have to pick Haruhi up later!"

* * *

Tamaki looked through his paper for the third time and sneaked glances around him save for turning towards the back. The paper was supposed to be two and half hours long, but he'd finished it within an hour. An hour and a half to kill, he'd checked through his paper, re-read the questions, napped for twenty minutes, and checked through his paper two more times.

Hearing the teacher give a cough from the back, he snapped his head back down to his paper; and flipped through it absentmindedly. His mind suddenly on Éclair Tonnerre; she'd given him a really good business proposition back then. That should he agree to marry her, he'd not only get into his grandmother's good books, he'd inherit half of her family's business and that she had better plans for them too. She told him back that day, two months ago… that she knew where his mother was. She would bring him to her, but only on the condition that he would marry her.

For those three simple facts, he agreed to her proposition, not thinking much of any thing else. Back then, all he could think of was Kyoya's outburst at him two years ago, about him not working hard enough for the opportunities given to him. '_That_ was an opportunity. But now that I think about it, I was right in breaking off the engagement. Grandmother was just out to test me. To see if I was greedy enough to accept such a ready offer. It was too good to be true.' He thought to himself, correcting a grammatical mistake in his history paper.

He flipped to the next page, eyes scanning through his answer booklet. He smiled softly to himself, his heart somewhat aching at the thought of not finding his mother sooner. He could always hire Kyoya's private investigators to track his mother down, watch her from afar. It was alright so long as she was doing fine. It was also alright if she cried silently in the garden they used to spend their afternoons in on clear weather conditions. It was perfectly fine, so long as she was alive and healthy. He'd make the PI's to drop off anonymous packages of pictures of him, shopping with Haruhi in the commoner's mall, or beaching with the twins at Nekozawa-senpai's private beach, or even playing with Antoinette in the backyard. It was simple enough a feat. His grandmother was merely a barrier he couldn't be bothered with now.

He corrected another grammatical error and tapped his pen on the table, merely out of habit.

His thoughts drifted over to the host club. It was only a month and a half ago that he re-established the host club, or rather re-joined the club. After he'd announced that the club would be dissolved at the end of the autumn festival, his family of friends stood there in shock as he walked out. He had no idea what they'd discussed after he forced himself to walk out that door, he only knew a part of him somewhat died and got left back in that room.

It took him two weeks. Two weeks without any form of contact from any of the host club members save for Kyoya, before he broke down and snapped, not being able to handle the absence of the friends he was so used to hanging out with. Kyoya wouldn't even talk about the Host Club to him in any case. Tamaki was too ashamed of himself to bring himself to ask about the rest of them. He couldn't even bring himself to find them and they avoided each other at all costs. If they were walking in the same corridor, they would ignore each other, save for Kyoya.

But two weeks was all it took. Finding his mother wasn't an issue, he remembered thinking about it for so long. It had only been four years since he'd seen or talked to her. Four years is alright. It was the minimal average time span a foreign student took went studying overseas. Although, other foreign students went home to their parents during the holidays, Tamaki merely went back to the mansion his hateful grandmother set up for him. It was alright though. He had friends like Kyoya and the twins to keep him company. Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai to look out for him no matter how busy they were; then there was Haruhi. She gelled all of them together somehow. She was the missing person their club had been searching for so long. And during those two weeks, he'd berated himself non-stop over how retarded he was for breaking off with such great friendships.

He'd asked Shima countless times, ethically, logically, humanely, emotionally: Was it correct of him to dissolve the strongest friendships that the six of his friends has boosted with him, all just to look for his mother? She'd merely given him technically correct answers; that he probably said to go ahead with the engagement, because he wanted to fulfil his duties as a son of the Suou family, and as the lone son who wanted to be filial to his mother. But she'd added quietly that between the two choices of the engagement and his friends, he ought to choose his friends just this once. Having six strong alliances was better than having six of the world's most feared enemies.

He never could thank Shima better for that one piece of advice he took seriously back then.

'Oh, another grammatical mistake… Sheesh.' He stopped tapping on the table and scribbled out the mistake, correcting it immediately.

So, when he opened the doors to the Host Club a month and a half ago on a cold and depressing afternoon, he got a shock to his short life of eighteen years, when he was greeted warmly with a loud chorus of "Welcome!". He didn't say a word when Honey-senpai scoffed at him, glaring at him and stating very clearly that it was the second he said he seriously hated men who were so fickle minded. If he were to say that to Tamaki again, he'd be beating the pulp out of his very soul. He guessed he deserved it when the twins scoffed at him too; asking him offhandedly what on earth was he doing at the Third Music Room, whether he was there to reminisce the old times he'd had there, or to see if he had a chance in joining them again. He remembered looking at Kyoya, who merely ignored him and took out his pocket organiser and promptly started writing in it. He remembered gazing into Mori-senpai's cool yet furious eyes; the usually taciturn and calm senior was angry at him too. What had he done?

Then he remembered his eyes falling onto the small and slender frame of Haruhi, her huge clear brown eyes locked with his depressed own, and he remembered her forcing out a smile, asking if he was here to join them again, to be back as part of the Host Club family. He remembered falling to his knees, apologising profusely, and for once, really sobbing in earnest for their forgiveness for even taking up Éclair's engagement.

He remembered the twins laughing and smiling after that, Honey-senpai saying that he was forgiven and offering him sweets and cake, and Mori-senpai's cool gaze softening into that of a concerned one, pulling him back up to his feet, and Kyoya was standing there, in his hand a set of clothes for him to change into, a nod of understanding passing between the both of them.

He remembered Haruhi shaking her head at him, but telling him that she was really glad that he wanted back in with the club. He remembered how she took out her handkerchief to wipe away his tears, telling him to go get ready since they were about to start business any time soon. He didn't regret going back to the club this time.

Tamaki snapped out of his reverie as he looked at the elaborately designed clock at the front of the classroom. Half an hour left. He had resumed to tapping his pen on the table again, his thoughts still on the Host club. But mostly, his thoughts were on Haruhi.

She was still an enigma to him. He still couldn't figure out if she'd be willing to become his girlfriend, or whether she wanted to continue cross-dressing as a boy to serve in the Host club. Or be both. He was sure he'd won her over, and that Hikaru wouldn't stand a chance against him anyway. Neither would the rest of them. He mused as he stifled an exhausted yawn.

He'd reached home at two the night before, his father and him sneaking out for dinner, discussing about they'd go about setting up his mini-empire. They were tying up the loose ends now. It had been only three nights ago that they'd discussed about his brilliant plan, but his father had his secretary to draw up the plans the very next day when he got back to Tokyo. He had too much free time in the office back in the Ouran campus anyway. Tamaki barely had the time and energy to read through his notes after taking a hot shower.

He'd go home to get some rest after today's only paper. And after that, he'd revise one last time for his geography paper tomorrow. Maybe if he had enough time, he'd look through the biology notes too. And he'd play with Antoinette in the back garden to relax for a while, and perhaps drop by Haruhi's place to see if she wanted to have dinner with him instead of cooking tonight. He'd get the chef to prepare some food in a large bento box set to bring along with him when he popped by in the evening.

Perhaps during dinner, he could ask Haruhi what she wanted to do after the exams. Whether she'd rather continue her stint with the club, or give the entire high school department a shock by wearing the girl's uniform to school…

Tamaki looked up at the clock again, time was nearly up. 'Two minutes to go…' He thought, as he closed his booklet, packing up his writing materials that were lying on the table.

* * *

a/n: I fast forwarded the time a little.

Haruhi sighed, the exams were finally over. She'd been quite shocked to find each of the host club members visiting her every alternate day. First it was the twins, but they were there every day to pick her up so that they could go to school together. She was thankful for them since it saved her half an hour getting to school by the subway. They'd try to distress, joke along the way to school, which helped all three of them out, because by the time they got to school, they didn't have the usual pre-exam puking syndrome.

Then Tamaki visited with huge bento boxes, filled to the brim with hot, steaming food. He'd tried asking her what she wanted to do about her stint with the club after the exams were over, but she merely shrugged him off with "I don't know, Tamaki." Or "I haven't really thought about it, but I will consider it thoroughly."

Then there was Kyoya who would drop by to merely check that she was still alive, and that she hadn't died studying. He did remind her to re-consider Tamaki's proposition to which she nodded and told him that she'd be thinking on it.

Then Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai came over whenever possible, to help her out with her studying. They usually sat there quietly next to her to study though, with Honey-senpai taking many of his regular cake breaks. Mori-senpai would end up cleaning the apartment for her, saying that it was too easy a feat since it was so small.

"Haruhi!" She looked up, in the midst of clearing her table. It was Renge, walking up to her, "Is it true? You've finished paying your debt to the host club and you're leaving them?"

The other girls started gathering around her, and she looked around, "Um… It's true, but I haven't – um…" She stopped in her sentence lamely as the girls started tearing up, asking and demanding for an explanation why she wouldn't continue with the club.

She looked over to Kaoru, who merely shrugged and had an evil smile lingering on his lips, daring her to go on.

"I haven't really decided yet." She said to the girls quietly. In the midst of their chattering, they paused, every single word she spoke like a prophet's message, and some smiled at her with the rest asking why she hadn't decided yet. She smiled sheepishly and told them Kyoya-senpai would call for an announcement when she'd decided what to do and that they should wait till then.

The girls slowly dispersed after she was thankfully hauled out of the sea of females by the twins, who were now walking on either side of her, Hikaru carrying her briefcase.

"So?" Hikaru asked, looking down at the short girl in between him and his twin.

"So, what?" She answered.

"What will you do? We heard from Tamaki-senpai himself. Kaoru did anyway." He looked down the corridor, trying hard not to look at her, he knew he'd just start raising his voice at her, asking her why wouldn't she choose him? Why choose Tamaki instead?

"Heard what? Kaoru?" Haruhi turned to the other twin, lost from his words.

"That he made his move. He confessed, didn't he?" Hikaru didn't bother waiting for his brother to reply, turning to look at her as she paused in her tracks, shocked that they knew.

"Well? What're you going to do then?" He asked, his voice trembling slightly out of his building frustration. He stalked off, not waiting for either of them to follow.

Haruhi stared at the remaining twin, who again, shrugged. He'd been shrugging a lot lately, perhaps Kaoru didn't know what to say, or was trying to hold back what he wanted to say, so he shrugged. Her shoulders slouched and she sighed as he slung his arm across her, "Don't sweat over it, girl. He'll get over it."

She could only nod as he steered her down the corridor and into the room where the rest of the club were waiting for them. She'd actually made up her mind the moment Tamaki's father left the room back when they were in Hokkaido. She just didn't want to think too much about it. She didn't know what to think about it either.

* * *

"Kaa-san…! Those unscrupulous twins are at it again! They're harassing my precious daughter!" Tamaki wailed pitifully as the twins continued badgering an obviously harassed Haruhi about her decision. She waved them off and sat down at a couch close to the table Kyoya-senpai was working at, much to his displeasure, but he ignored the twins pestering. If she hadn't called Mori-senpai to rescue her out from their clutches, then he supposed it was just a mild goof act that she was too immune to.

"Otou-san, if you could just get a grip of yourself… Sit by me and read through these reports, we have things yet to discuss which are of major importance." Kyoya paused in his work, his fingers hovering over the laptop's keyboards. He watched as Tamaki whimpered yet took his seat next to him, and Kyoya pulled out the various financial and progress reports of the club and laid them in front of the still whimpering boy.

Kyoya secretly didn't want Tamaki coming back into the club. It was enough reason that since his top host had quit; it was good enough to wrap up the business. But the idiot had to come crying to them, asking for forgiveness over his spur-of-the-moment stupidity. He could've killed the bastard, but looking at the circumstances, all he could do was to take out his organiser back then and write in it, trying blatantly to ignore the guy. He'd wished for Mori-senpai to take out his kendo stick to whack the pig's head, but Mori was Mori. He was the silent, rational type who wouldn't fight back unless threatened to do so. Mori just glared at Tamaki instead.

He knew that Tamaki had finally confessed his love for Haruhi, especially when he asked his best friend about it the day after. Tamaki had been giddy for hours about it. Kyoya let out a quick breath and stared back at his laptop, his fingers starting to type words into the machine swiftly.

"Kyoya, should Haruhi leave the club, how much will the club be affected?" Tamaki asked softly as he focused his attention on the various charts in front of him, flipping through the progress reports quickly, scanning through the numerous numbers.

"We will lose a maximum of 30 of our customers, a minimum of as little as 8 of them." Kyoya said, speaking as the numbers popped up mentally, he'd memorised the figures of each and every host they had.

"Alright." Tamaki stacked the reports and files up neatly next to Kyoya's laptop, standing up.

"Is that all, Tamaki?" The raven-haired boy paused in his work once again, this time to regard the changed Tamaki.

"Yes, that is all." Tamaki replied, before offering his best friend his trademark friendly smile, and walking off to gather the rest of the club members together for a quick meeting.

Kyoya saved the document he had been working on and created a new document for the meeting as the rest of the members took their seats around the long table.

"Before we start on any thing…" Kyoya announced, regarding the six people he'd grown used to over the past few months, years with his usual shadow king glance. He looked directly at his target, "Haruhi, what is your decision?"

He watched as she looked up at him, and looked at every single member at the table, "I don't mind continuing to be in the club…" She paused, looking at him as the twins and Honey-senpai cheered happily, calling for celebrations to be made, "But on one condition…"

Kyoya waited in anticipation and amusement for her to finish up her sentence, 'She really is such an enigma. Let's see what she wants then…' He smiled, "And what would that be, Haruhi?"

"That I get to be myself. Not be a guy." This earned her extra cheering from Honey-senpai and smiles from the twins and Mori-senpai.

* * *

"Tamaki. What will you say to that?" Kyoya glanced over at Tamaki, whose face was now impassive and unreadable. He was a little surprised that the usual flamboyant youth could pull off such a look.

"Are you sure you want, Haruhi?" Tamaki questioned politely as he sat up regally in his seat at the head of the table as always, staring at the girl four seats away from him. Kyoya watched as the girl nodded her head once, and back at Tamaki, who nodded back in confirmation. Kyoya nodded once too, in affirmation that what was said had been understood.

"Then from today onwards, Haruhi will no longer be in the Host Club hosting." Tamaki stood up this time, taking his time to speak. The twins started to protest at his words, but he held a steely gaze at them to listen before they spoke.

"Haruhi, you will host occasionally when needed, but you will be in-charge of the trival chores once more." He looked at the girl, whose eyes were still trained on his every move, "However, since trival chores are now usually taken care of by the few maids we request over from my place, you're only required to be present as and when we need you around. You'll just sit there and look pretty."

The twins quietened down at Tamaki's words, absorbing them in, while Haruhi frowned, "Then I'm nothing but a display piece! I'm pretty sure the girls would mind that I haven't been hosting… They've been wanting to see me in female clothes all this while…"

He watched as Haruhi deepened her frown, "Besides, while I might not care if I'm a guy or a girl, I still want to make it known that I'm not some transvestite when I graduate from this school, and go out and work in the future."

Tamaki leaned back into the chair and pondered, a smile forming on his lips. The idea wasn't that bad, he'd hope for her to come up with this combination anyway… His mind chugged as the five males in front of him looked on, puzzled at his lack of speech.

* * *

Sorry for the crappy and unfluffy ending of the chapter… we've got one or two more chapters to go though! Rejoice! Yaaay! Hahaha…

**Right, next update won't be for a few days…**

**But stay tuned anyway. ;) cheers mates!**


	10. Luncheons and Bento

**Chapter 10. mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha. Whatever. I got stuck. In a mini brain fest of everything save for chapter 10. I cried so badly. Anyway, I think this is gonna stretch way past 10 chapters, yeah? Just so you can get more chapters to read, but that means shorter instalments, I hope you don't mind!**

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**Chapter 10 :: Luncheons and Bento.**

"Tamaki-senpai!" Haruhi ran up, trying to catch her breath. 'That guy sure has long legs. My god.' She'd just saw him walk down the corridor just two seconds ago, she tried catching up with him, but he'd already walked to the other end of the corridor and was about to turn down into _another_ corridor.

"Haruhi!" Said target stopped and whirled about, happy to see her. "What is it?" He waited for her to catch her breath, and listened to her mumble in short breaths about "stupid dress", "long legs" and "walks too fast for anyone's good" and grinned. She was now wearing a girl's uniform and panting as she stood upright, looking up at him, face flushed from the short sprint.

The club had finally announced her gender to their customers a few days back, and while there was a huge ruckus revolving around it, Haruhi's regular customers didn't mind it one bit, although many were disappointed that Haruhi-kun wasn't actually a guy, but a… well, a cross-dressing female. The rest of the customers questioned their integrity about the genders of the other members, to which Kyoya then explained Haruhi's debt and the girls relented. Many of the customers then started spreading rumours about the Host club using '_poor Fujioka-kun as a publicity stint_'. The twins had the greatest laugh about it when they overheard a few of the guys from their class talking about it.

"Are we having club today?" She'd handed him her bag absent-mindedly as he silently reached out for it; a few girls stopped to sigh at the sight of them. It was as if a mutual routine they had now, when they bumped into each other –intentionally or not-, he would reach out for it, and she would in turn, let him have her bag.

"No. I was about to find my father. Lunch time chat with him… Would you like to join us?" She heard him ask they walked alongside each other. She thought about her bento box in her bag and was about to reject his offer when the very person they were talking about appeared out from a door somewhere along the far end of the corridor.

"Father!" Tamaki ran up ahead of her and greeted his dad.

"I've told you so many times, Tamaki… Do not call me your 'father' when on the campus, it's not professional. Address me as -"

"Superintendent. Yes, I know." Tamaki finished up for the elder of the two as Haruhi walked up to them, "But there's no one around! Besides, I was about to tell you that Haruhi will be joining us for lunch today."

"I object to that, Tamaki-senpai." Haruhi promptly replied, earning her an arch of an eyebrow from the superintendent.

"But, why?!" The young man stopped in his tracks, turning back in surprise.

"Because I brought my lunch bento today."

"Oh, forget about the bento… We've got better food for you!"

"But that's just wasting food, senpai!"

"Then I'll eat the bento on top of lunch."

"No."

"Why!?"

"I'm not going through this again, senpai."

"Am I really that repulsive?"

"……"

"Haruhi!"

"I said I'm not going through this again, Tamaki!"

"Well, I have your bag. It's got your bento in it, I know!"

"Alright, you two…" The superintendent chuckled to himself as he clapped his son on his back and nodded to his secretary to show Haruhi down the corridor to the small dining room that he usually used. "Let's go have some lunch while you two bicker over who gets to eat the food out of the bento, shall we?"

Haruhi scowled lightly as she walked into the room, reluctant and disappointed that she couldn't try out the new dish she prepared this morning as Tamaki cheered, taking out the bento and setting it on the table as he took his seat next to his father.

Haruhi hadn't exactly welcomed the idea of the club not being so actively functioned as before; they used to open for business three times a week, however they only functioned once a week nowadays. Honey-senpai only had to remind her that this was good news for her and that she should be happy, because now she could spend more time with her studies, and really work hard to become the top lawyer in the future. Even though he'd said that, she still felt the dull ache of not being able to spend more time with the graduating seniors. She truly enjoyed his and his cousin's company, since they never had any ill-intentions towards her unlike the twins' constant harassment, Kyoya-senpai's usual business ploys and Tamaki's more-than-often fatherly affections still showered on her. He'd started his "fatherly love" for her the moment he'd seen her in her new uniform that the twins bought for her. In fact, they'd bought her five sets, one for each day, and her boy's uniform was now hanging in the rack at the back of the music room. They had it dry cleaned after every use.

Seated next to Tamaki, she reached out for the bento quickly while the boy wasn't looking, and stole a glance at the superintendent's secretary, who merely looked on at her with an interested smile.

"Haruhi! Why are you still trying to eat from your bento? I thought…" Tamaki started asking her and saw the weird side dish on top of the rice she'd placed in the bento, "Uh… Haruhi… what's… what's that?" He pointed, moving over to get a better view of the lunch box in front of her.

"I made a new dish this morning. I haven't tasted it, so now I'm going to taste it." She replied stoically, picking up a fork and piercing at the dish. She looked up at the superintendent who smiled at her and back at Tamaki, "Want to try?"

Tamaki gulped audibly as he smelt at the dish. It didn't smell weird, just salty. "S-sure…" He took the fork from her and bit into the dish. 'Tastes like squid, no, octopus. Was there meat in there!?' He let the flavours roll over his taste buds, and swallowed after chewing through carefully, "It's nice!" He made for an attempt to get another piece but Haruhi had already closed the bento with its lid.

"Thank you very much, senpai. But I haven't tried it myself. Superintendent, would you like some?" She smiled cheerfully at the superintendent as she pushed the boy's face away from her.

"Oh, no it's alright. You can have it, my dear…" The superintendent replied, as she tried snatching back her bento from his son.

"This is getting so not funny, Tamaki." He watched as the girl attempted to grab her bento once more, but his son had gobbled everything down in one go, choking on the rice. He laughed hard as the girl scowled and his son grabbed for a glass of water on the table. They reminded him dearly of her parents indeed. Perhaps he'd drop by in the evening with some supper for Ryoji and the lovely young lady seated across from him.

"Honestly, senpai… Could you try eating at a slower pace?" Haruhi patted on his back awkwardly as he coughed a while more.

Suou Yuzuru smiled as he nodded towards a waiting maid to pour his son another cup of water and reached out for his own glass of red wine.

'If there were more times like these…', he thought to himself, as Tamaki managed finally to get some much needed air into his lungs, watching as his scholarship beneficiary chided his son some more, 'I will have to pay Ryoji a visit soon…'

Sipping on the wine, he mentally slotted in for an appointment to meet up with his once best friend.

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a/n: you know, 10 weeks from now, you can expect more stories to start blooming from me. (: because that's when I graduate from school!


	11. The visit old pals give

**Open up your eyes for some feasting! Chapter 11 comes your way… say 'aaaahhh…!' (:  
I think school's doing me in.**

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**The visits old pals give**

Haruhi opened the door that blocked out the outside world to her home. It had been a long day at school, and all she'd wanted to do was to just take off her uniform and change into something lighter after a quick shower. Autumn was passing her by so quickly, and the final term papers were up in two months time. 'After I shower, and make something light to eat, I'll get started on my English homework, then it's dinner, and maybe I'll revise some of that physics after that.'

Kicking off her shoes and putting them neatly on the shoe rack by the door, she peeled off her blazer and hung it up on the hanger by the kitchen window. 'The great thing about having a small, cozy apartment,' She thought to herself as she placed her briefcase bag on the small table in the sitting area, 'is that every thing is within reach, and you don't have to walk too far just to get to it.'

Humming a tune her mother had taught her just two days before she passed away, she smiled to herself and picked out the first clothes she saw in her small wardrobe – a frilly top, and shorts. Her father must've rearranged her wardrobe again. "Hey, I thought these were at the bottom of the pile…" Haruhi said to herself out loud.

"Yes, darling. Daddy rearranged your wardrobe again. Actually, I bought new clothes for you, threw out some too..." The familiar drawl of her father came from his room. Haruhi poked her head out of her room and saw that he was sitting inside with another person.

"But dad! My clothes are just _fine_ they way they were!!" She retorted, frowning as she heard the other man let out a chuckle at her frustrated tone.

"But Haruhi… Those clothes look too boyish on you!!! Daddy wants his daughter to dress more femininely!!!"

"They're not boyish, they're comfortable!" She yelled as she stormed over to the toilet. If only her mother was still around, she wouldn't have the problem of her father overspending on useless things like clothes. They had many clothes, too many, in fact. She sighed angrily and recalled back the days when her mother was still very much alive, cooking in the kitchen, with Haruhi standing on a chair by the sink watching her cook, while her father would be frolicking in the background, applauding whenever her mom finished cooking a dish. She remembered how he would sulk in a corner with his clouds of doom and gloom whenever her mother banished him out of the kitchen when he was being too noisy or distracting.

Haruhi felt her anger ebb away as she suddenly thought about how Tamaki was very much similar to her father and wondered how Tamaki would be like if he were to get married some day. 'He'd end up just like dad. A mentally crazed idiot who'd be as obsessive about my obviously plain fashion sense.' She thought and locked the toilet door behind her. She was about to take off her clothes when she heard her father knock on the door gingerly. Sighing, she paused to listen to what he had to say, "What is it?" She asked curtly.

"I'm sorry I bought you so many new clothes…"

"All that money was meant to be saved up, dad… For _The_ vacation, remember?"

"I'll work hard the next few months to earn back that money and I won't splurge. I promise!"

"Like I'll believe you…"

"You can finance the money! I'll give the money to you and you'll keep it away from me!"

"Fine. You know that would never work out somehow."

"Haruhi..."

"I'm _showering, Daddy_."

She turned the shower on to signify that the conversation was over and heard a soft 'eep!' from behind the door and smiled when he heard footsteps padding away from the bathroom.

----

"Ryoji, what was that all about?"

"Oh you know, father-daughter bonding... and I keep telling you, it's no longer Ryoji, it's Ranka." Ryoji settled back down on the floor next to his guest, picking up his can of beer, gulping down a mouthful and letting out a loud burp after a moment's breath. The two men shared a laugh very much like the way they did decades ago.

"Why did you come visiting, Yuzuru? After so long... Not that I'm one to complain, but I thought after so long, you'd have already forgotten..." Ryoji leaned his back onto the wardrobe door, an ear listening intently at the bathroom. The shower head stopped with a creak of the tap, his daughter would be out of the bathroom soon, and she might get a big shock, what with her senior's father sitting in the same room with her dad, and not killing the poor guest yet.

"And what? Ryoji?"

"I told you-"

"Ranka's a disturbing name, for now, at least. We've been playmates since nursery, I can't call you Ranka after calling you your name for past forty-odd years... It's hard. It'll take a while, okay?" Said senior's father, Suou Yuzuru took a sip at the bland tasting malt. He should've gotten the driver to get him some strong beer from the fridge at home before visiting.

"Anyway, how could I have given up searching for you, Ryo? You just up and left all of us that day. You've still yet to claim your inheritance too. Your parents knew how much Kotoko meant to you, they wanted to tell you that, but you never once went home to visit after that day." Yuzuru had his eyes trained on the beer can, his heart aching slightly too for his friend's sad sigh.

His thoughts were dragged back to the incident that happened twenty years ago, when his best friend had announced that he would marry the pretty, yet plain-looking commoner girl who'd captured his life's passion. Yuzuru himself was ecstatic about the wedding, but it was a different case with Ryoji's parents, who'd threatened to disown him if he didn't agree to the arranged marriage to the prime minister's cold-hearted second daughter. Ryoji had packed bags and left that night his parents had threatened him. He didn't even leave a note, nor did he call Yuzuru to tell him where he would shelter at, only a brief farewell along with a plea for him not to let anyone track him out. Yuzuru did just that, he never questioned Ryoji about where he would get his finances from, or what he was going to do. He only did as what his best friend, his brother, had told him to do, _"Keep them away from me, Yuzuru. I don't want them following me, I don't want them visiting me. Kotoko and I will be fine, when we've settled down, I'll come back. I promise."_

"You never came home, Ryo... Your parents were so worried something happened. I couldn't stop them from it, I wanted to know for myself too... I let them track you down, and that's when we found out that Kotoko was already gone for three years already. I'm sorry..." Yuzuru looked at his childhood playmate, sorrow in his eyes. It would have been a perfect moment if they fictional characters out from a story book, when a shadow blocked out the light coming in from the hall.

"Eh? Superintendent! What are you doing here?"

"Ah, Haruhi!!! Daddy needs some chips, can you get daddy some potato chips?"

"Go get them yourself." Haruhi said, eyes narrowed meanly at her father who started cowering somewhat.

"Yuzuru... Daughter is being mean to me!!!" The okama next to said 'Yuzuru' started sulking in a corner, drawing circles with his finger.

"Dad, have you been drinking again? You stink. Go bathe, please! Superintendent, I'm sorry, but what are you doing in my home?" She asked, keeping her eyes half trained on her father who was sulking in the background again, and training the other on the guest who was dressed in the same attire that night back in Hokkaido, yet the regal air in him seemed to have dissipated with the way he sat, legs stretched out, a beer can in hand, with his smile always still so amused whenever she stopped to study him. Today however, his smile didn't seem to reach his eyes.

"Just visiting an old friend of mine, Haruhi-chan..."

"Uh... okay. I take it that you'll be staying for dinner tonight?" Haruhi clipped her fringe up with two hairpins, hiding her surprise with a smile. She knew her father loved branded clothes all this while, but didn't know that the superintendent was a friend of her father's.

"I'm not too sure about that..." She tilted her head, prodding him on to explain himself. When all he did was shrug and turned to look at her father, still being a boy and sulking in the corner, she let out a small sigh at her father's behaviour.

"I have to apologize for my _father_ behaving that way. He's always been like that ever since even before I was born, or so mom used to say. We're having beef stew tonight, are you sure you don't want some for dinner?" She inquired again, looking back at Tamaki's father, ignoring her father's puppy eyes to skip out on showering.

"Oh alright." She managed to conjure a smile out that reached the still-sombre-looking man's eyes, "If the little Miss insists, then I, Suou Yuzuru shall not attempt to bail out on it. Dinner it is!"

Haruhi smiled cheerfully before slipping her bemused look back on, "Dad, don't even think about it. Toilet, now. Did you even bathe when you got home this morning?" She heard her father mumble something under his breath while Yuzuru smirked, a chuckle escaping from his lips, "I heard that, honestly, Dad! Toilet, now!"

The petite girl took her father's towel and passed it to him as he dragged his feet to the toilet and threw a sheepish smile at their guest, "How about you wait in the sitting room where there's the television to keep you busy while dad freshens up?"

Yuzuru nodded silently and got up, following behind the teenager, thinking to himself how similar Haruhi was to Kotoko, even though the two didn't get to spend much time together. She was magnetic, the two of them were magnetic. Something about them made one want to spend more time to get to know them more, to want to evoke some sort of emotion out of them. He sat down heavily at the short table a few feet away from both the television and the kitchen area. He mused about how Ryoji had been obsessed about the commoner's livelihood, so much so that this was the outcome of Ryoji's little dream home. A very, small and cramped apartment the size of his own walk-in wardrobe. He placed his now empty beer can on the table as Haruhi switched on the television set and handed him the remote.

"I'm sure you know how to handle remote controls, right?" She asked him, as if it wouldn't be a surprise to her if he'd replied in a sheepish 'no'.

"Yes, of course... Thank you, Haruhi..." He smiled up at her and took the remote from her as she gave him a nod and told him that she'd be in the kitchen if he needed anything. She picked up his beer can and moved off.

----

It wasn't till an hour later that Ryoji walked out of the bathroom, towelling dry his hair and sitting down heavily next to Yuzuru, still grumbling about his daughter being the boss of him and how that wasn't supposed to be the case since he's the man of the house and she was supposed to play her role as his daughter. Yuzuru couldn't help but smirk at his friend for the second time that day.

"What are you smirking at me for?"

_'Someone's sure got his drawers twisted... His daughter did it too.'_ Yuzuru continued smirking lazily, flipping through the limited channels on the television, "Oh, nothing in particular. Just over how much you've never really changed even after so long..."

"What do you mean, 'never really changed'? I look like a freaking woman, mind you, Mr Flatter Pants." Ryoji sent a weak glare at Yuzuru, earning himself another chuckle from him.

"Right. But you're still you, Ryo. Come on, your parents are still alive, and very much unwilling to see themselves to their graves until you decide to see them again. It's just one visit. I'm sure they'll be thrilled that you even remembered them." Yuzuru gave him a side way glance, smile still on his face.

"Yeah, right. And what? All I have to do is just pop by and go, 'Oh, hey folks, it's me, Ryoji. Look at me, I'm a drag queen now and my show name's Ranka! How's it going, old man?' They'd have a fit of the century, Yuz." Ryoji rolled his eyes while the other clutched at his stomach, laughing hard.

"W-well, j-just put on that old suit and grow some stubble...My own mother won't even wait up for me, yours have been waiting all their lives since the moment you walked out that door." Yuzuru sat up, wiping tears away from his eyes, "They won't know a thing about what you're doing, I'm sure. Even if they did, they haven't complained about it."

"What? What did you say?" Ryoji stopped midway in towelling his hair, "They haven't complained?"

"Er... well... see..."

"You told them."

"Something like that..."

"You _told_ them?!?"

"..."

"Bastard."

"Aw, come on Ryo..."

"Asshole."

"You love me too..."

"Dork."

"Ryoji, come on..."

"Shut up, flatter pants."

"Dad, stop your profanities or I'll have to do something nasty to you."

Haruhi was standing at the kitchen door, an eyebrow arched, the bemused look on her little face, and a soup ladle in hand. The two men sat gawking at her. _'She really IS the boss of him.'_ Yuzuru thought absent-mindedly as he slowly found himself raising both his eyebrows at her, "Sorry about that, Haruhi-chan. Your father and I were just reliving some old memories that spurred him to be a little vulgar. I know how disgusting he can get some times. Believe me, I know. I'll make sure that doesn't happen again."

"Haruhi!!! Daddy is sorry he used bad words in front of you!!!" Ryoji suddenly launched himself onto her waist, smothering her with a hug.

"Dad...! Get off me, please."

"I'm sorry to have tainted your virgin ears!!!"

"Seriously, dad. After all those nights of you being drunk senseless yelling all sorts of profanities? This is nothing."

"Wh-what?"

"Now, if you could just let go; I have to tend to the stew, before I start studying for my exams that's coming round in two months."

"B-but, since when have I come home sputtering profanities? Haruhi?"

"Ever since I was ten, Dad."

Haruhi pried her father's fingers away from her and walked back into the kitchen, "And I would suggest that you to visit your parents. The least you can do is to assure them that you're doing fine right now." She turned back to look at her father, who sat slouched at the kitchen door, the spirit in him gone at the mention of his parents, "I'm sure mom would've wanted that, Dad."

When he looked up at her, she gave him a warm smile, "Haruhi..." He turned back to look at his childhood playmate and best friend who also had a warm smile on his face. "Yuzuru..." His friend gave him a slight nod, "Isn't Haruhi just the cutest little girl you've ever met?!?" Ryoji smiled widely, his happiness over his daughter seemingly about to explode from him.

"Ryoji..."

"Yes?"

"Don't change the subject when it's such a crucial moment. You've ruined it, idiot."

"But..."

"Are you going to visit your parents, or not?" It was Yuzuru's turn to look bemused, when did a short visit to an old pal end up with him trying to goad and convince the same old pal to pay a visit to his aging parents? This wasn't in the itinerary. It was just go visit, exchange stories over a beer and go back to their lives. Not getting the said old pal, whose wife had died over ten years ago, the same man who was so obsessed with his daughter, to visit the parents whom he'd walked out on close to twenty years ago.

When he didn't get an answer from said old pal, Yuzuru ran a hand through his pale blonde hair, "That's it, old man. You're going to visit them whether you like it or not. Like what your daughter said, it's the least you can do."

Haruhi stepped out of the kitchen, nudging her father out of the way, "I'm going to study in my room, the two of you can stay out here to talk. Dinner will be in two hours. Don't spoil your dinner with more nuts and beer."

Ryoji nodded silently at his daughter and inched aside for her to navigate her way around him. After she'd closed her room door, he let out a long sigh, "How about a game of checkers?"

The two men shared a smile, it had always been their favourite board game since young.

----

Dinner came and went soon enough, and the two men had high praises over Haruhi's beef stew by the end of their meal. Haruhi wiped her hands on a paper towel as she stood next to her father at the door, Tamaki's father was making to leave already.

"Thanks for dropping by today, Superintendent."

"Call me Uncle, please. I'm your father's friend afterall."

"Okay, Uncle Yuzuru." Haruhi let a smile play on her lips, before letting out a small gasp, "Oh right! The letters!" She hurried back into her room while the two men stood at the door, listening to her rummage about her room.

"Listen, Ryoji. This is final, you will visit your parents tomorrow. We'll all go tomorrow. That includes Haruhi."

"I don't know, Yuz. It's been too long. They might not even recognise me any more."

"It's about time Haruhi got to know her own grandparents, at least give her that. I'm sure your parents will be thrilled to find out their son produced an offspring that is so unlike of him." Yuzuru let on yet another smirk, placing a friendly hand on his friend, "Don't sweat on it, you're Fujioka Ryoji after all. They were glad you didn't change your family name even after walking out on them."

Haruhi returned, a smile on her face, her cheeks flushed from her frantic search, "Here you go, Uncle Yuzuru. It's not much since I didn't have much time to write the many letters you expected..."

Yuzuru was handed a stack of ten envelopes, some thicker than the others. He smiled at the girl in front of him fondly, "Thank you Haruhi... I didn't think you'd have taken Uncle so seriously!"

He watched as she blushed furiously and chuckled, "Haruhi, please come over to my office immediately after school tomorrow. Uncle will be taking you and your dad to visit your grandparents, how's that sound?" He heard her gasp in surprise as she looked at him in equal intensity as her gasp.

"Really? How are they like? Are they nice people? I'd hate if they were like Tamaki's grandmother. She's such a nasty old lady!" Realising her frank outburst in front of the son of said nasty old lady, Yuzuru watched as the girl gasped in shock and horror and smiled kindly at her.

"Sorry..."

"Don't worry, I think of her that way too, just some times. You'll find out that your grandparents are rather nice people, at least, nicer than my mother..."

"Hey, thanks for the visit anyway, Yuz. I'll be waiting at the school by 1pm tomorrow, okay?" Ryoji suddenly spoke up, a soft smile playing on his lips as well.

Yuzuru nodded and gave an affectionate pat on Haruhi's head, like how an uncle would to his favourite niece, "Good night then, you two."

"Good night, Flatter pants."

"You too, Sissy boy. See you in school tomorrow, Haruhi-chan."

"See you!"

"Dad?" Haruhi whispered, while she stood next to her father, holding on to his hand tightly as they watched Suou Yuzuru get into his limousine and drive off.

"Yes, Haruhi?"

"I'm sure you'll be fine tomorrow. We'll be fine. Right?" She shifted closer to him, shivering slightly at the cold autumn wind and looked up at her father, who's eyes were still trained on the limousine as it disappeared down the road. He looked serious, something he only looked like when he was playing the role of his duty as a father.

"Of course, dear. Of course we'll be fine..." She smiled as he looked down at her, ruffling her hair with his free hand, "It's just my parents. Like what Uncle Yuzuru said, your grandparents will be thrilled to find that their only child managed to produce a wonderful daughter such as you."

He smiled and closed the door, leading the two of them back into the warmth of their apartment.

_'But I'll just take it as it comes... I've been through worse... It's just my parents, after all...'_ Ryoji thought as he watched his daughter walk back to her room, after announcing that she was going to continue her homework.

Tomorrow would be such a big day.

But tomorrow wasn't here yet.

Tomorrow.

* * *

**Phew! Okay, it's mostly character development for this chapter. Be prepared for the visit to Ryoji's parents! I'm not sure how this story is gonna turn out to be, honestly speaking. Just take it with a pinch of salt and sugar and cinnamon, please? Humour me while we develop with this story. **

**But here's a hint to what happens next chapter:**

**- visiting**

**- some host club action! **

**(: cheers.**


	12. Heir to the Heiress

**Aren't you the lucky ones this season? (: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you! Here's Chapter 12 for your christmas present! Hee hee... Completely irrelevant title, I'd think, but when you're a little tipsy from all that wine and merry making... (: oh well. What the heck.**

* * *

**Heir to the Heiress**

"Dad, hurry up!" Haruhi called out to her father who looked around his surroundings uncomfortably. It had been such a long time since he'd been to a place so vast and huge. He looked towards his daughter and noticed that some students were stopping to stare at him. He wasn't in his old suit, as how Yuzuru had suggested that he ought to put on the night before. Heck no, he wasn't going to listen to Flatter pants about what to wear to a visit back to his old home. He had on the suit he'd bought for Haruhi's middle school graduation. It was a grey pin-striped blazer with matching pants, a plain white long-sleeved shirt that came along with a pair of black-studded cuff links. A dark green tie Kotoko had given to him when he'd gotten his first job at some office back then, and some random pair of leather shoes he'd bought a while ago. He loosened his tie and took long confident strides towards her. The female students sighed breathlessly at the bishounen that was all of Fujioka Haruhi's father.

"Honestly, Yuzuru. Did you have to build such a ridiculously huge campus? I nearly got myself lost just walking in your mini forest back there." Ryoji whined as he stopped beside his daughter, who instinctively reached up to straighten his tie properly. Suou Yuzuru smiled and shrugged, standing directly in front of them, his secretary waiting patiently just behind him.

"Well, I have to satisfy other people, you know. Running this school is a business after all... Are you about to be done?" Yuzuru looked at the father-daughter duo and received a nod from the little miss.

"Seriously, next time I come here, you are to send your limousine to pick me up from my place."

Haruhi smoothened out her school dress and was about to follow after her father when she heard her name being called out from afar.

"HARUHI!!!!"

She turned to find Tamaki sprinting down the corridor, many of the students moving to the sides to make way for him, "Eh? Tamaki-senpai?"

"Tamaki, there is no running around along the corridors, least of all bellowing in them." Yuzuru chided his son as the boy halted to a jog and then stopped short in front of the group.

"Yes, father." Tamaki leaned forward on his knees, catching his breath for a moment. Grinning sheepishly at them, he dusted off his blazer, "It's a surprise seeing you here, Ranka-san. Where are all of you going?"

"To my grandparents place." Haruhi replied without missing a beat. As per usual practice that they'd been at for the past few weeks, she passed him her book bag silently and held her father's hand as the group of five started down the corridor.

"Oh! Can I come along too?" Tamaki asked excitedly, stuffing Haruhi's bag under his arm next to his own.

"I don't think that would be wise, senpai..." Haruhi replied, "I've not even met them once. I don't even know how they're like, or what they look like. Dad hasn't seen them in over ten years, right, Dad?"

The two teenagers looked at the long-haired middle-aged man who sighed and nodded silently, "It's alright Haruhi. He can come along. The more the merrier, I suppose."

"Did we hear 'the more the merrier'?" Twin voices suddenly appeared from no where sounded out to them. Just as suddenly as the voices popped out, the owners of the voices slinked out from behind two pillars from behind the group, it was Hikaru and Kaoru. "We want to go too!"

"Us too! Us too!" A cheerful tiny voice chirped out to the growing group. The cousins came to view as the group slowed to a stop, Haruhi in a state of speechlessness.

"And I suppose Kyoya-senpai would like to come along to?" She asked, trying to compose herself, bemused that visiting her grandparents was turning out to be like an excursion to the mall.

"No. Kyoya-kun had to go home today." Morinozuka Takashi spoke out, an affectionate brotherly smile donned his lips as he looked at the petite girl before him. "Some business he had to attend to. We can come too, yes?"

"Uh... I didn't expect such a turnout..." Haruhi looked up at her father who merely shrugged, not trusting himself to speak. "I suppose you can all come along too, but I don't see how Uncle Yuzuru's limousine will fit all of us in there."

"Uncle Yuzuru? She called him 'Uncle'!!" The twins baffled in laughter, "Haurhi... We have our own limousines! We can just use Tamaki-senpai's car to follow the superintendent's one! Race you to the front, Mori-senpai, Hani-senpai!"

Haruhi shrugged slightly and tugged at her father's hand as the twins took off, with the cousins jogging after them, "Tamaki, don't you have to go back to your office?" She asked, looking at the blonde-haired teenager walking next to her.

"Not today. I left the office to my manager for today. We were supposed to have Club today remember? But Kyoya had to rush home, like what Mori-senpai had said, so we cancelled Club today." Tamaki replied, in a matter-of-fact manner.

Haruhi nodded, remembering that Kyoya-senpai had allowed her the afternoon off from the club since she was going to visit her grandparents. Tamaki parted ways with them once they'd gotten to the main entrance. His father had told him to ride in his own limousine while Haruhi and her father would take his. There wasn't much of a fight in that, and Haruhi was quite impressed at Tamaki's gradual transformation in maturity.

It wasn't until when the limousines had moved out of the school that Haruhi realised that her father was awfully quiet. She looked at his face and observed him. He was looking utterly nervous. Smiling, she reached out for his hand and gave it a squeeze, like the ones he would give to her whenever he happened to be at home when a bad thunderstorm broke out, "It'll be okay, dad. You'll do fine."

He nodded at her and smiled, holding her close like he usually did, "Of course... of course..."

Yuzuru smiled at the two seated across from him.

-------

"Suou-sama. Welcome."

"Yes. Where are they?"

"The Sir and Madam are in the backyard, Suou-sama. Shall I announce your arrival?"

"Yes, please do. And tell them I've brought a surprise. A few surprises, actually."

"Acknowledged, sire."

"I will wait for the rest to arrive and we will all proceed to the backyard so there is no need for Uncle and Aunt to move around too much."

"Yes, sire."

"That will be all. Thank you."

Yuzuru turned back to the father and daughter and smiled at their expressions. Haruhi looked awe-struck at her grandparents' home. It was larger than Tamaki's home, it was bigger than Kyoya-senpai's home too. She'd seen it once, in passing. It had been one of those rare afternoons when she would dine out with Tamaki and Kyoya for lunch and Tamaki would drop Kyoya-senpai off first. Ryoji's face looke clouded though, like he was deep in thought, lost in his memories. Yuzuru nudged his friend slightly, jerking him from his reveries, "You'll be fine. Don't sweat on it, alright?"

He watched as Ryoji gave him a muted nod. He listened as his son's limousine pulled up at the porch and the boys piling out from the vehicle, voices in hushed awe as they stepped into the grand foyer.

"Whoa. It's so big and pretty, Takashi!"

"Yes."

"Hikaru, look at that chandelier! Mom would kill for that one..."

"Yeah, and that painting. That's got to be one of Da Vinci's originals."

"Haruhi, you didn't tell me your grandparents were so rich!"

"Huh? I didn't know that myself, Tamaki-senpai..."

"Alright." Yuzuru spoke out finally, grabbing all their attentions, "While Ryoji, the little miss and I go out to the backyard to speak to Haruhi's grandparents, I want you boys to keep it down and wait in the sitting room, alright?" He smiled at them as they grumbled, and nodded at a few servants standing ready nearby to lead the boys to the sitting room.

"Now, you two... Let's go." He started walking in the opposite direction, not waiting for the two to catch up.

"Yuzuru-kun, you're here... Have you heard anything from Ryoji yet?" an old frail voice called out, muffled by a door as Ryoji led his daughter along into the back pantry. Nothing much in the house had changed. In fact, nothing had changed.

"Better yet, Uncle Jin. I brought him along this time."

"You did? Where is he? Where's my son? Ryoji?"

Ryoji stopped in his tracks and took a few steps back. Maybe coming back for a visit wasn't such a good idea. He didn't feel ready, he wasn't ready to face them yet. But before he could take yet another step back, he felt a pair of small hands pushing him forward instead.

"Go dad. You'll be fine... He's calling you..." It was his Haruhi pushing him forward. He looked deep into her eyes and almost for a split second, he felt as if, just for that moment, Kotoko was the one telling him that he'd be fine, that he should go. Smiling down at his daughter, he took a deep breath and nodded, turning back to find that his father was standing at the door, tears streaming down the old man's cheeks.

"Otou-sama. I've come home." Ryoji croaked out softly, almost inaudibly. But it was heard like crystals chiming in the air.

"Welcome home, my son. We've waited for you for so long." Fujioka Jin inched across the room slowly, unwilling to believe that his son was actually home. Turning around to the back door, he called out, waving his walking stick for an elderly lady to make her way in as well, "Machiko, machiko..! Hurry, Ryoji. It's Ryoji! He's home for real this time. Machiko!"

The elderly lady hurried in, a smile on her face, "Ryoji? Is it really you? Come here, so that your mother can see you. Oh dear. My eyes are always failing me like that..."

Ryoji's heart felt a pang of pain as he watched his parents, now elderly old people, with terribly wrinkled skin, welcome him home with such kindness and gusto. "Yes, it's me, mother. I'm home." He embraced his mother with a hesitant hug, but tightened it when he felt her hands wrap around his back possessively the way all mothers would to their children.

"Oh you silly boy. How could you ever think that we would actually disown you for marrying a girl you loved so much?" Fujioka Machiko asked as she let her pent up tears from many years run freely down her cheeks. "I'm just so happy you've decided to come back home, even for a visit, Ryo-kun. I'm so happy."

It wasn't until he'd decided he was running out of breath, when Ryoji realised that he was too, crying some how into his mother's shoulder. He let go of her and gave her a smile, glad that what Yuzuru had said was right, they didn't forget him after all this while. Walking over to his father, he gave the old man a tight hug too.

"Ah, Ryoji... Your father here, is now an old man. Be gentle on the delicate bones, son." Jin chuckled as he gave his son a one armed hug, "I've missed you so much, son. The many nights your mother and I hoped for you to returned..."

"I'm sorry I didn't returned any sooner. I just couldn't." Ryoji replied, detaching himself from his father, "I didn't think I was ready to come home." He whispered, berating himself inwardly for making his parents worry half their lives away when they should be enjoying their retirement.

Suddenly remembering about his daughter, Ryoji rubbed at his face and smiled widely, "Mother, Father. I want you to meet my daughter; Haruhi." He turned around and motioned for his daughter to approach them, his smile proud on his face as he beamed back at his parents, "She's the most wonderful girl you can ever meet. She's always been there for me ever since Kotoko passed away..."

He placed both his hands on Haruhi's small shoulders, as if showing off a new toy he'd just bought to his parents. Haruhi managed a small smile and a slight bow to the two elderly people she was thrusted in front of, "H-Hello. I'm... it's a pleasure to meet you both, grandmother... grandfather..."

"Isn't she just the cutest, darling thing ever in this entire world, eh, mother?" Ryoji commented again, face flushed at his cute daughter in front of him as his parents stood rooted to their positions, taking in the new person in their lives.

"She looks like Kotoko-chan, no, Jin?" His mother mused out loud while his father nodded in response.

"She certainly does take after Kotoko. I hope she's much like Kotoko. It would be a horror if she's exactly like Ryoji..." Jin added on, walking towards the fridge.

"Oh Uncle Jin, you'd be pleased to know that she is unlike our dear Ryoji at all. She is the most level-headed girl I've ever known, next to her mother." Yuzuru said, leaning on the door frame, "In fact, I'm sponsoring her education right now as it is. She's such a smart and intelligent girl. Plans to become a lawyer like her mother some day, right, Haruhi-chan?"

"Yes, that is correct..."

"Haruhi..." Machiko said experimentally, rolling the girl's name over and over again, "Such a pleasant name..."

"Uh... Dad...? If it's not too much of a hassle, perhaps I can get the boys to come over now... I suspect they'd be grumbling away and making a mess in the sitting room by now..." Haruhi asked, suddenly wishing her friends were around her to dissipate the serious and rather overwhelming air around them in that moment.

"We beat you to that, Haruhi..."

"Yeah, we're already here!"

The twins strolled into the pantry casually, with a pair of very hassled and blushing maids in tow. The cousins followed behind along with Tamaki.

"Haru-chan! Does your grandparents have any cakes? I'm starving!"

"Haruhi... Sorry, I couldn't make them stay in the room... I was getting bored too... Heh..."

"And who might these gentlemen be, Haruhi?" Her grandfather asked slightly sternly, catching the boys' attention, getting them to a standstill.

Haruhi smiled, happy that her grandfather was interested in knowing her friends, even though she wasn't officially introduced to the old man. Lining the boys up, she introduced the 'gentlemen' to her grandparents.

"This is Tamaki-senpai, he is Uncle Yuzuru's son. This is Haninozuka Mitsukuni and Morinozuka Takashi. They're cousins and their families are experts in martial arts and kendo." She looked at her grandparents as they nodded in approval, "These two are the Hitachiin brothers. This is Hikaru and this is Kaoru. They're my classmates. Their father owns a computer firm and their mother is a fashion designer." She stood by the boys and saw her grandparents thinking hard at the family names they were just introduced to.

"There is also Ootori Kyoya. He's in the same class as Tamaki-senpai, but he isn't here today because he had to take urgent leave to tend to some business at home." She continued, as her grandfather nodded, 'hmm'-ing away every now and then.

"What amazing friends you have, Haruhi…" Fujioka Jin said finally, a smile breaking out on to his wrinkled face.

----

Haruhi sat on the swing hanging from a tree in the backyard as the boys, her family and Tamaki's father were inside, laughing to a joke Hikaru just cracked. A maid in-waiting stood nearby should she have the sudden need of something. She'd told the maid she would just like to be left alone, and told her not to let any of the boys disturb her for a while. The maid smiled and nodded, promising to keep watch for her.

Haruhi wondered, as she set the swing in motion slightly by pushing it off the ground, what sort of day it had been so far. This odd family reunion of sorts with her father's parents. '_My grandparents. I have grandparents. That's quite hard to believe…'_ She mused, a cool light breeze pushing unruly strands of hair away from her face. It was overwhelming, how her grandparents had welcomed her like it was another new year's family gathering they were accustomed to. And her father was changed somewhat too; he seemed a little more relaxed and at ease after so long, like he seemed relieved about something. He smiled like he never did before, she'd noted. She felt a little bit of an outsider as the grown ups talked, while she sat by the side of the sofa, drinking her tea, listening in quiet intent about the stories her father exchanged with her grandparents. The boys were busy playing in the games room her grandfather had shown them to, but Haruhi didn't feel like playing just then.

She was glad Tamaki decided to sit next to her, listening intently too. She suppose he was just being a good friend, to sit by her in support while the adults exchanged their stories. Occasionally, her father would bring up the topic of her mother, and she would find her ears drowning every word in, as if ecstasy to power her memory of her mother. It was rare of him to talk about her, but he talked so much about her to the two elderly people than he had to her for the past ten years.

She smiled to herself, when she suddenly remembered Tamaki holding on to her hand, a smile of reassurance on his lips whenever she looked at him. That was during the moments her father talked about her mother's passing on. She remembered only feeling that she was about to cry, but wouldn't. Not in front of her grandparents. Although in the end, her grandmother did pass her a few tissues to wipe a few tears up.

She didn't know what exactly she ought to call her relationship with Tamaki at the moment. If what he was doing now was called 'dating', then it was rather routine. Lunches everyday with him or together with him and his father, occasionally she'd invite him over for dinner and vice versa. They'd study together, and he would teach her all he knew of all the subjects she took, saying that it was "_something that a person of my status has to go through with, all those many subjects"_. Not that she wanted to complain about it, but she was appalled and overwhelmed by the capacity of his memory. And then there were the weekends where he would come over and ask her in hushed whispers if she wanted to go out to the park for a walk with him and his dog, just so that he wouldn't wake her father up with his regular outbursts.

Haruhi couldn't help but smile at the memories of those weekends. Some times, her father would get up, breath reeking of alcohol from the night before, demanding where Tamaki wanted to kidnap his daughter to, and Tamaki would stammer hopelessly before she would just direct her father back to bed, encouraging him to get some more sleep before she came home with a delicious breakfast for him. The two would them giggle to themselves quietly before they set off for the park, hand in hand, most of the times, in one hand would be breakfast that she'd prepared already, or she would help with keeping Antoinette close by with the help of the leash while Tamaki juggled the picnic basket and various things that he brought.

_'He was awfully sweet today. Such a nice guy...'_ She thought, kicking off the ground so that the swing gained a slight momentum again.

Her grandfather had announced for her father to take over the family business after her father was done describing what he'd done over the past decade or so, living his life. She'd asked meekly what the business was about, to which her grandfather had given her a hesitant glance, "_I own a law firm."_. She was pretty sure her grandparents weren't expecting her to react the way she did to his reply. She'd actually turned to her father, knowing fully well that no one could withstand the pretty doe-eyed effect that she could give to anyone and have positive returns at any time she wanted, "_Daddy, please say you'll let me join the company? Please?"_ Of course, the boys were in total awe at what she'd done. She'd _never_ ever done the doe eyes on anyone. They'd wanted her to do it again so that they could imitate her, but she merely flicked them off to a corner with a blunt, "_I use it only when I need it. Right now, I don't need it."_

Of course, her father caved in at the doe eyes. In fact, he'd swiftly turned Haruhi around to face her grandfather, doe eyes in full force, making Fujioka senior cave in too, gushing to his wife about how adorable their granddaughter looked, and that it was a "definite Ryoji thing". Her grandfather did straighten up for a moment after that cave in, trying to compose him self by regally asking her why the sudden interest with the family business. She'd nearly exclaim loudly that all she wanted to do was to follow her mother's footsteps and be the best lawyer in the whole of Japan. She gave him her most cheerful and enthusiastic smile, again, a first that she'd done in front of her current school mates, and again, causing her father and grandfather to gush in flattering dramatics about how beautiful their lovely Haruhi was.

"Oi! Haruhi!"

Haruhi turned around in the swing to get a good look at the speaker who'd just rudely disrupted her thought process.

"Come on in before you catch a cold!" Another voice identical to the first called out.

It was the twins. Smiling to herself, she hopped off the swing lightly and walked towards the two brothers slowly, it would be a long day tomorrow, her grandfather had promised that to her. For she would start learning the basics of the business that she would inherit in a few years time, provided, she passed Law School, in which her grandmother had urged her father to allow his parents to sponsor her education for her from now on.

She supposed she could live with a sponsored education, what more could it hurt? She was already on a sponsorship. Right now, her grandfather would just forfeit the sponsorship and pay the remaining amount of school fees needed to see her through till graduation. She calculated that it was indeed a very large sum and was doubly motivated to do her family proud by trying to gain some ground and aiming to be the valedictorian this second half of the semester onwards.

"Do you want to have some sorbet, dear?" Her grandmother offered as she walked into the back pantry where the old lady was waiting for the three teens.

"Sure! Strawberry, please!" She grinned as she took out a small cup from the cupboard that her grandmother pointed to.

This, she could definitely live with...

Caring grandmother, enthusiastic grandfather, and her doting father.

_'A family at last!'_

* * *

**Yay!!! Hope your christmas was more interesting than mine! (: Happy Christmas!**


	13. A Bit of shopping does wonders

**This has been yours and my longest wait yet!! I know! I've been away for so long, I'll tell you what happened: I finished school, got sick for 1.5months (oh hell yes i did), wrote some, got sick again, got well, wrote some more, started working. Now that i've quit my job, I'm writing again, just that i'm abit skeptical.. am i writing it all right, the way i wanted it to be? **

**Anyway, i'm taking it as it goes along... i hope you have as much fun reading as i type it! There's been a time shift in the story, so please don't be alarmed. (:**

* * *

**Abit of shopping does wonders**

Haruhi smiled serenely as the limousine pulled up the driveway of her new home. She didn't really think of the day when she'd actually get to meet her family. It usually had been just her and her dad. Everything had been them; the Father-daughter duo. She knew she'd been a solitary person from the beginning; after her mom passed away.

There were days where she would sit by the altar and talk to the picture of her mom. She knew it wasn't a very healthy practice, but it was all she could ever get close to; to talking about her life to someone… some _thing._ She never imagined that she'd actually have an extended family of grandparents somewhere. Her father never said much about his parents, or her mom's parents. She never really asked because whenever she did, he'd avert her attention away to something else quite sloppily and she would just sigh inwardly and change the topic.

'_Right now… I have a family! And I can finally talk to someone who's real, like grandmother.. Not that mom wasn't real. She couldn't answer me anyway.'_ She mused to herself as she got out of the vehicle.

It had been three years after graduating from Ouran High as valedictorian, and she was now a law student in the University of Tokyo. With her industrial attachment and guaranteed position in her grandfather's law firm, she was one of the most sought after, brightest students in the faculty who would win mock case after mock case in class. She'd even begun handling small cases from her grandfather's law firm, under the watchful eye of his top lawyers to guide her. She couldn't have felt any happier.

"Welcome home, Haruhi-sama." A chorus of voices called out to her as she handed her document bag to a maid.

She still felt uncomfortable at being waited on hand and foot, but ever since she was told to move into her grandparents home with her father, she had been instructed to let the maids do everything, because that's the main reason why they were being hired for to begin with. She enjoyed the luxury of not doing her laundry and other household chores now though. It gave her so much more time to look through cases to compare and reflect on what she'd learnt in school during those hours. It even gave her more time to catch up on her sleep and sometimes, call up one the boys from the host club for an outing on days that she was completely free from homework and cases.

Today was one of those days. She'd finished school early and had plenty of time to spare before dinner. It was only past lunch time. _'Perhaps I shall call the twins up…Or maybe disturb Kyoya-senpai again. Or maybe not.'_ She shuddered at the thought of calling Kyoya up during a weekday. The last time she tried calling, he'd sounded frazzled enough to tell her rather coldly that if she'd so much spare time, maybe she should consider taking up a different career instead of idling her life away like a sloth, because unlike her, other people (meaning him) had a whole array of patient cases to look into till the cows came home dry with no milk.

She sat on the wooden bench by the grand foyer and took off her shoes as her butler placed her house shoes next to her. _'Oh, alright… I shall call Tamaki and see if he wants to go shopping with me! He'd definitely say yes.'_

She slipped on her house shoes and took out her mobile phone and speed-dialled Tamaki's office number as she walked towards the corridors leading to the back pantry to get a mug of orange squash.

"Tamaki Suoh's Office." A cool but quiet feminine voice clipped over the line.

"Honjo-san, is Mr Suoh's schedule free this afternoon?" Haruhi smiled as she replied, imitating the secretary's cool voice. She took out her mug from the tray and placed it on the counter.

"Who is this calling?", came a replied that tried to mask the secretary's surprise.

"It's Haruhi.. I want to check his schedule because I'm so free right now. If he's schedule is free then put me through to him. Don't tell him it's me." Haruhi laughed lightly over the phone and moved over to the fridge.

"Haruhi-san! It's been such a long time! Please hold on." The cool voice from Honjo-san completely replaced by her usually excited and chirpy tone. Haruhi smiled fondly, "He's free for the afternoon, Haruhi-san… I'll put you through to him"

Tamaki's secretary, while as candid and lively as her boss, she was highly organised, collected and cool when it came to her job. She'd reminded Haruhi about how alike Honjo-san was to be; like a hybrid of Tamaki and Kyoya put together and always mused about this fact to her grandmother, who agreed with her on almost everything her granddaughter said.

"This is Tamaki Suoh speaking." A deep, firm voice called on the other end of the receiver. Haruhi's eyebrows perked up and her smile went from happy to amused.

"Fujioka Haruhi calling."

'_Wait for it…Wait for it…'_ Haruhi counted to herself, _'Now.'_ She put her mobile phone on speaker mode and placed it on the counter next to her mug and took out the jug of orange squash.

"Ahhh!!!!!!! HARUHI!!!!!!!"

"Hello Tamaki."

"YOU NEVER CALL ME ANYMORE!!!" She poured herself a mug and walked back to the fridge to place the jug back.

"I spoke to you over the phone just four days ago, Tamaki."

"WHY DON'T YOU CALL ANYMORE?!? WAIT!"

"What?" She picked up the phone as he settled from his hyperactive screaming.

"Are you seeing another guy?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you never call anymore!"

"Don't be stupid, Tamaki."

"……"

"……"

"But…"

"I was busy studying. Anyway, I've already asked Honjo-san about your schedule. You have nothing important planned for today."

"Really?"

Haruhi sighed at his lack of intelligence. It was to be expected when dealing with Tamaki anyway.

"Yes, really. But, are you completely free right now?"

"Not really. I'm busy talking to you right now."

"Right…" She couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow at the man's sarcasm, "I'll drop by your office in a bit. I want to go out for a while. How does shopping sound?"

"Are you trying to coax me into a date, Fujioka-san?" His voice turning playful, yet amused.

"Depends, Suoh-san, if you're interested in it."

"Definitely! It's shopping!!! What more, with my lovely Haruhi!!!!"

Haruhi couldn't help but smile at that. They'd been going out for a few years now. While he was still his hyperactive self, Tamaki had mellowed out a lot more and placed most of his hyperactivity into his work. He'd successfully bought out Suoh Enterprises from his father as planned, much to his grandmother's surprise and anger, and much to his father's happiness. Tamaki was now Japan's richest man – at age 22.

He'd earned his grandmother's respect after buying out the whole of Suoh Enterprises and while she felt angered at being outsmarted by her own grandson, who was at least four times younger than she was, she felt proud that he'd thought to evade all her tactics thanks to her own betraying son who helped his own son out. She was even quite surprised when he'd explained to her that while he'd bought out nearly everything in her wealth, he was mindful to leave a handsome amount for her to live on, in her retirement days.

"_You're more intelligent than that moron son of mine, Tamaki. You will get your inheritance when I'm gone."_ She'd replied softly when he'd finished speaking to her. He left her in her room to reflect on his words, but not before she graced him with a matronly smile, and he'd never felt happier in his life.

"See you later, lord idiot." Haruhi hung up the phone as he protested at the nickname she'd just used on him.

-------------

"I want to get that Ferragamo cardholder, and that pair of shoes from that Italian shoe shop that just set up in Ginza! Oh and you know, I happened to walk past some alleyways in Ginza the other night with Honjo-san… and I saw these really nice gloves! But I'm not sure if it's genuine hide they have in there. The prices were costly though, for a pair of gloves from a little shop! And next door to it, there was this shop that was selling some really good sake, I want to get some for Uncle Jin and my dad. Maybe your dad might like that fruity flavoured one, it was really nice! Honjo-san liked some and bought a bottle home for her husband."

Tamaki had been going on and on for about fifteen minutes now, but Haruhi listened to him banter away about the many things he wanted to get. He seldom talked this much, and she supposed it was because she forgot to call him for four days that made him this way. She laughed as he stopped suddenly and exclaimed how thirsty he was.

"We'll go to every shop you said just now, if we have enough time, alright?" She said as the limousine slowed to a stop outside one of his prime location hotels.

"Oh, we'll have enough time! If they close, we'll just call the manager to open the shop and we can go in!" He bantered on as a doorman opened the door of their vehicle to let them out. As he stepped out, the doorman bowed deeply in greeting and Tamaki held out his hand for Haruhi to hold on to as she got out. Tamaki smiled to himself as he was suddenly struck by a flashback, of a highly similar occasion that happened in Hokkaido many years back while they were still High School students.

Haruhi was dressed up in her own style today. Because it was mid-autumn, she was dressed a little warmer, in a pair of snugly fitting jeans and peephole heels, a long-sleeved button down shirt and a dark-coloured vest that she threw on that morning because it was chilly. Around her neck, a custom-made scarf that the twins made for her for the season (_"We specially made it for our best friend! There's only one in the world. We took the liberty to publish it in some magazines before we gave it to you. So everyone will drool from afar while it gets adorned on your precious neck!"_) and a beige trench coat that Hunny and Mori-senpai had given to her as a birthday present a year ago.

Tamaki held on to Haruhi's hand as he nodded an acknowledgement to the doorman, passing him a large bill for a tip, leaving the man thanking in too much gratitude "Let's go inside first. I'll go speak to the manager first and then we'll start shopping, alright love?"

Haruhi nodded as she let him lead her through the open doors of the hotel.

It wasn't till a half hour later, when she found herself walking in and out of shops, trying this and that, with Tamaki purchasing everything he thought looked great on her, even if some were entirely ridiculously looking and she tutted and complained that she didn't need it at all. She was sure the twins would detest at what they bought, and even told him so, but he exclaimed, looking all heartbrokened, "But we have all the money in the world! What good is it if we don't spend it?"

Haruhi narrowed her eyes on him, and sighed, "What about the future?"

To which, she watched her boyfriend grin, "Oh, we'll manage. I somehow manage to find ways to get more money that I put in, dearest."

By dinner time, they had to tell shops to deliver their goods to either one's homes, because there were simply too many bags to hold on to, and too little servants running behind them to hang on to their many purchases.

Haruhi looked at Tamaki while sipping on a hot cup of green tea carefully, "It's your birthday next week, Tamaki... what would you like to do?"

Tamaki looked up, feigning surprise, "You remembered? Oh, my! She actually remembers!!!" Grinning, he reached into his blazer pocket and pulled out an elegantly crafted envelope, and passed it to her.

"I've already planned my birthday! Besides the obligatory parties, and the club's get-together party with our families, this one's just for us."

Haruhi took the envelope and broke open the wax seal _'Trust him to come up with this sort of money-wasting efforts. Looks really nice though...'_, and took out the heavy parchment from within – a hand-written letter, two airplane tickets and a heavy key that was scotched taped onto the letter.

She looked up, and frowned slightly, questioning him, "And this leads to where, exactly?"

"The Caribbean's!"

"Natural beach?" she quirked an eyebrow.

"100 of it is all natural! Even the bedposts and all are made of wood!" he proclaimed, grinning away like the excitable man that he turned out to be.

"Okay then..."

"Okay?"

"Yeah, okay."

Haruhi placed the key and tickets back into the envelope and put it into her handbag for safe keeping.

"Just like that?"

She looked up at Tamaki, "One more time, and I might just change my mind, Tamaki..." she said jokingly.

He smiled sheepishly just as the waiter brought their meals. He knew pacifying her with all that shopping would've worked somehow. _'Although...',_ he wondered to himself as he caught his lovely Haruhi smiling back at him lovingly, _'I think I should ask her soon...'_

* * *

**Abit of a stale ending, but I promise I'll make it better in the next chapter. I don't think I can keep to that 12 chapter promise – It's our 13****th**** chapter. Sheesh! XD**


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